The St. Louis Blues looked more like their old selves while winning back-to-back games at home.
They held off the Ottawa Senators 4-3 Friday, then edged the Utah Mammoth 1-0 the next night. The Blues will try to continue their resurgence on Monday night when they host the Anaheim Ducks.
The Blues came into this three-game homestand with a 3-5-4 record on their own rink. Then they regained their defensive intensity while twice holding their lead in the face of late-game pressure.
“It’s been great to watch the last two nights how committed guys have been to playing the right way, to sacrificing for each other, to being selfless again,” Blues coach Jim Montgomery said. “It’s nice to see those qualities in our team identity.”
In both games the Blues kept their opponent from scoring 6-on-5 goals during the final minutes. St. Louis also killed off a five-minute penalty late in the victory over Utah while allowing just three shots on goal during that span.
“It’s a testament to our attitude, to our mentality,” Blues forward Dylan Holloway said. “Guys weren’t getting down on the bench, guys were keeping each other up and making hell of a good plays on the PK. That was a huge kill for us.”
As a result, the Blues were able to win consecutive games for the first time since Oct. 11 and 13.
“It’s huge,” said Holloway, who scored the only goal in Saturday’s game. “I think our effort and our intensity has definitely been there these past two games. Obviously playing a back-to-back is tough. You’ve got to dig deep, but (the Mammoth) were playing a back-to-back too, so we knew it was going to be a bit of a grind out there and I was proud of our effort.”
The Blues got strong goaltending performances from Jordan Binnington Friday and Joel Hofer Saturday, so Montgomery will have an interesting choice to make in net for this game.
The Blues will bid for their first three-game winning streak of the season against the Ducks, who fell to the Blackhawks 5-3 Sunday afternoon in Chicago.
“I think after we got the 3-0 lead, we didn’t do what made us successful,” Ducks coach Joel Quenneville said. “We got careless with the puck and (thought) we could do whatever we wanted to do, and that changed … Certainly disappointed. That was one that you get it out of your mind because it could haunt you.”
After their 11-3-1 start, the Ducks leveled off while going 4-6-0. They allowed 14 goals while losing two of their last three games.
With goaltender Lukas Dostal sidelined with an upper-body injury, Petr Mrazek started against the Blackhawks on Sunday. But he suffered a lower-body injury late in the game, forcing former Blues netminder Ville Husso to fill in.
Husso earned a 5-4 shootout victory Friday over the Los Angeles Kings in his return from the AHL.
“I’ve been playing a lot down there, so it’s been good,” Husso said. “The team is doing well there, too. I’m just trying to keep myself (at the) top of the game. It was not easy, but I was ready to go, and it was nice to get the two points.”
With Dostal expected to miss a few weeks, Husso could take the lead role for the Ducks, starting with Monday’s game.
