St. Louis Blues hold edge against Minnesota Wild – NHL Preview
St. Louis Blues will still be wondering what went wrong when they played against Columbus Blue Jackets a few days ago as the latter was the victorious.
However, the next game saw the Blues getting back to winning ways again and it looks as if they are up for starting a new winning streak as they host the lowly Minnesota Wild in a National Hockey League (NHL) game on Saturday, February 18, 2012, at Scottrade
Center, Saint Louis, Missouri.
Let’s have a look at both the teams.
Blues
The Blues are placed at fourth spot in the Western Conference with 77 points after 57 games.
Their four-game winning run was snapped by Blue Jackets, but they comprehensively won the next game against New York Islanders to silence the critics.
Islanders scored a goal within the first minute of the first period, but the rest of the game belonged to the Blues.
St Louis got two goals in the first period and managed three in the second to take the decisive four-goal advantage. The final period went goalless.
Blues’ centre, T.J. Oshie, said after the win:
"That's what we were looking for for sure. Our start of the game was a little bit of a concern up to about the last five minutes of the first period, but from then on, everyone was going, everyone was playing good, getting back to that north game and coming
back hard."
Wild
The Wild have only won one game this month and are currently on a six-game losing streak with the last defeat coming against Winnipeg Jets.
The Wild are ranked at 12th spot in the Western Conference with 59 points after 57 games.
Against Jets, the battle was closely fought throughout the regulation with both the teams managing a goal each in all the three quarters.
After the goalless overtime, the game was forced to shootout where Jets eventually got the victory.
Wild’s winger, Devin Setoguchi, who had two goals in the game, said after the defeat:
"If you don't win the game it's really not satisfying. But it's nice that our line was able to put some in. Just missed opportunities again made us come up a little short."
Predictions
Blues will win the game.
The sum of goals scored by both the teams might stay under six.
If the Wild win, the goal difference will be less than two.
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