The St. Louis Blues have won four straight games to claw back into the Western Conference playoff race, but they are still playing catch-up.
“It’s a good feeling, but there’s no satisfaction at all,” Blues winger Jake Neighbours said after the Blues defeated the Anaheim Ducks 4-2 Sunday night.
“We still have a lot of work to do and we’re still chasing and we still need points. It’s kind of a one-game-at-a-time attitude. Keep trying to grab points where we can get them and just take it game by game. If we do our job, hopefully, we’ll sneak in there.”
St. Louis (36-29-3, 75 points) sits four points back of the Vegas Golden Knights for the second Western Conference wild-card slot entering Monday, although Vegas has a game in hand. The Blues’ bid to make up ground will get tougher when they host the streaking Colorado Avalanche to close their four-game homestand.
The Avalanche (43-20-5, 91 points) have won six straight, three of them in overtime, and eight of their last nine.
Playing the second of back-to-back games, the Blues performed just well enough Sunday to get past the reeling Ducks, who lost their sixth straight.
“Today we looked like a slow hockey game,” interim Blues coach Drew Bannister said.
“We found a way to win, and that’s the important thing,” said Blues center Robert Thomas, who scored twice. “I don’t think it was our best game by any means, but when you find a way to win, you can’t complain.”
Colorado is battling the Winnipeg Jets and Dallas Stars for the Central Division lead. All three teams have 91 points, but Winnipeg has played one fewer game than Colorado and Dallas has played one more.
Those three teams and the Pacific Division-leading Vancouver Canucks are competing for the top seed in the Western Conference playoff bracket.
The Avalanche won 3-2 at Edmonton Saturday, edging the Oilers when Arturri Lehkonen scored with 0.5 seconds left in overtime.
“I think it was just a team win. Fast transition on both sides of the puck led to some odd-man rushes and some good offense,” Avalanche defenseman Sean Walker said.
“The third (period) was really interesting because they came back and took the lead and we were able to tie it, which was good,” Colorado coach Jared Bednar said. “Points out of this building in the middle of a long road trip is encouraging for our team.”
The Avalanche earned victories at Calgary and Vancouver earlier in the trip. After facing the Blues, they get a two-day break before facing the Columbus Blue Jackets to open a five-game homestand.
Colorado has won two of three games against St. Louis this season. The Avalanche defeated the Blues 4-1 at home on Nov. 1 with Mikko Rantanen (goal, assist) and Cale Makar (two assists) pacing the offense.
The Blues answered with an 8-2 rout on Nov. 11 in Denver with Pavel Buchnevich and Brayden Schenn each scoring hat tricks. The Avalanche came to St. Louis on Dec. 29 to earn a 2-1 victory with Alexandar Georgiev stopping 28 shots.
–Field Level Media