St. Louis' Evgeny Grachev scores third goal to lead Blues to victory against Colorado Avalanche
St. Louis dominated once again, raising their record of total victories to three out of four now in the 2011 National Hockey League (NHL) preseason as Blues' forward, Evgeny Grachev, scored his third goal to lift them above Colorado Avalanche, 3-2, on Friday,
September 23, at the Pepsi Centre in Denver, Colorado.
Being a prospect for a spot on the St. Louis team, Grachev has surely impressed the management so far and keeping this up for the remaining four preseason matchups, it will not be surprising to see him playing in the regular season next month.
Blues head coach, Davis Payne, was nothing but praise for the 21-year-old from Khabarovsk, Russia.
"He's finding a way to be effective, not only on the score sheet, but in a number of different areas, decisions on the ice with the puck, his defensive play", Payne said. "He's come here to make a statement to our organization after picking him up in a trade
this summer and he's doing a very good job of it".
Grachev scored the first goal of the night while taking advantage of the contests initial power play opportunity as Joel Chouinard of Colorado went out with a minor for hooking.
The second period remained scoreless as both teams fought to take control of the match but both goalies, Jake Allen for St. Louis and Semyon Varlamov for Colorado, remained locked down defensively throughout.
Ryan Reaves and Cody McLeod exchanged fists during the final seconds and were given a five minute major for fighting, forcing both teams to enter the third period with only four skaters on the ice.
Adam Cracknell shot 5:02 into the third to extend St. Louis’ lead, 2-0, but Tyson Barrie broke the scoreless spell and put Colorado on the scoreboard a little over halfway through.
Avalanche missed an opportunity to take the lead after forward player, Peter Mueller, lost the puck and turned over the position to St. Louis as David Backes extended the lead with 59 seconds on a breakaway.
Paul Stastny potted another goal for Colorado 14 seconds later but failed to make more after that.
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