Saturday, February 16, 2019 03:00 PM (ET)

Blues shut out Avalanche, roll to 9th straight win

Field Level Media
Feb 16, 2019

Jake Allen had 32 saves for his second shutout of the season, Vladimir Tarasenko and Zach Sanford scored 57 seconds apart, and the St. Louis Blues beat the Colorado Avalanche 3-0 in Denver on Saturday.

Tarasenko added an assist and Jaden Schwartz also scored to help the Blues to their ninth straight win. It's the club's longest winning streak since Oct. 15-Nov. 5, 2002.

Semyon Varlamov had 30 saves as Colorado lost for the ninth time in 10 games. The Avalanche have dropped six straight at home.

Allen, who made just his second start since Jan. 17, backstopped St. Louis to its second straight shutout win. The Blues have not allowed a goal in 127 minutes, 14 seconds.

Tarasenko broke a scoreless game 4:01 into the third period. He set up at the left circle with no one near him, got a cross-ice pass from Ryan O'Reilly and beat Varlamov with a wrister on the short side for his team-leading 25th goal of the season.

The Avalanche nearly got the equalizer moments later but Carl Soderberg put a shot wide of an open net. Sanford countered with his seventh goal at 4:58 to make it 2-0.

Schwartz scored into an empty net at 18:24 to seal it.

The Blues played without second-line winger Alexander Steen, who left the team to be with his wife as she gave birth. St. Louis got a scare when defenseman Alex Pietrangelo fell to the ice after blocking a shot early in the game.

Pietrangelo limped off but returned later in the first period and finished with 11 shifts in the period, the most by any player.

The Blues and Avalanche traded chances in the second period but couldn't score. Colorado had two power-play opportunities, one a four-on-three, but failed to get a clean shot on Allen.

Varlamov had to make a couple of tough saves on wide-open chances and was able to keep St. Louis off the board. The Blues hit a post on one of their power-play chances in the first period.

--Field Level Media

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