St. Louis Blues stay hot with third straight over Florida Panthers -NHL Match Update
The St. Louis Blues continued their winning streak, now having extending it to two along with limiting all three opposing clubs to a point or less for a new franchise record as they toppled the Florida Panthers, 4-1, Thursday night, November 17, 2011, at
the Scottrade Center in Saint Louis, Missouri, United States.
Coming out of a monumental, 6-0, win over the Dallas Stars, the Florida Panthers were certainly stunned to see that they could not score more than one goal through Blues goalie, Jaroslav Halak, after having 21 shot attempts on his net.
"We've had numerous times this year where we've settled down after bad stretches, and we didn't do that tonight," Panthers coach Kevin Dineen said. "In the third period, I think they were a very hungry team. They smelled that we were trying to find an easier
way to win than we've shown this year and that doesn't happen for a team."
David Backes added the first of the night on a breakaway unassisted for his fifth of the 2011-2012 National Hockey League (NHL) regular season nearly midway through the first while Mike Santorelli got Florida Panthers right back into the game with his third
on a breakaway of their own.
St. Louis played without Scott Nichol for nearly half the second period after he was booked with a 10 minute major for game misconduct against Ryan Reaves, but the Blues still managed to pot the tie breaker as Chris Porter added his first of the season.
The third period was again all St. Louis as Kris Russell made the insuring goal 9:46 in and David Backes secured it even further with his second of the night having less than two minutes to go until the final buzzer sounded.
"I thought we really grabbed the game in the third period," new St. Louis coach Ken Hitchcock said. "We played really well and with a sense of discipline. It was a hard game.”
The Blues have the next game on the road against the Minnesota Wild on Saturday while the Florida Panthers will start their four-game home stand against the Pittsburgh Penguins the same day.
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