St. Louis Blues closer to capturing Western Conference top spot with 5-2 victory over Edmonton Oilers
Edmonton showed some great form as they rallied for a comeback but St. Louis was just too much to handle for the young Canadian team as the Blues dominated Oilers, 5-2, Wednesday night, February 29, 2012, at the sold-out Rexall Place in Edmonton, Alberta,
Canada.
Having won four-straight games along with improving to a 40-17-7 record, St. Louis has certainly stunned the entire National Hockey League (NHL) as they moved up to number two in the Western Conference with 87 points. They are now only a game away from overtaking
first place Vancouver Canucks.
All of a sudden, St. Louis has definitely emerged as a favourite team to end the 2011-2012 NHL regular season atop the West and enter the postseason as a team that could surely go deep this time around.
Andy McDonald grabbed his fourth of the year 59 seconds into the first period followed by two more from Scott Nichol and another from McDonald nearly midway through the middle 20-minute round.
Edmonton attempted a comeback in the second period to show they have not stopped fighting back as Corey Potter added the first and Ryan Nugent-Hopkins made it a one point game at 19:12 with his 15th of the season.
Kevin Shattenkirk ensured a St. Louis rebound with his power play goal early in the final period as Cam Barker was booked for slashing. Chris Stewart took the match way out of Edmonton’s hands as he got the breakaway goal at 7:54.
Edmonton gave three straight penalties in the final period, and even though they kept St. Louis out of the net for two of them, Oilers failed to score any as well.
St. Louis is looking to clean sweep their three-game Canadian road trip as they marked Calgary Flames and now Edmonton Oilers off their list. They have the next against Vancouver Canucks on Thursday.
Edmonton on the other hand, might not have much hope of making it to the playoffs with a little over a month remaining, but their planning on using this time to plan out a strategy for next season. Oilers have the next against Dallas Stars at home on Friday.
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