Recap: St. Louis vs. Detroit
St. Louis, MO (SportsNetwork.com) - Justin Abdelkader's two goals and Petr Mrazek's 23-save shutout sent the spiraling St. Louis Blues to their sixth straight regulation loss, a 3-0 setback that concluded the regular season for both clubs.
The defeat allowed Colorado to clinch the Central Division and the No. 2 seed for the upcoming Western Conference playoffs, where the Blues will take on defending Stanley Cup champion Chicago in the opening round.
Prior to its skid, the longest by the Blues since a seven-gamer from Dec. 26, 2009-Jan. 7, 2010, St. Louis owned a seven-point advantage on the Avalanche for first place. The team has mustered an anemic five goals while being shut out three times during the stretch.
Detroit (39-28-15), already locked into a quarterfinal matchup with the Presidents' Trophy-winning Boston Bruins in the East, also received a goal from Riley Sheahan and two assists by Pavel Datsyuk in support of Mrazek's second career shutout.
Ryan Miller finished with just 18 saves for St. Louis (52-23-7), which nonetheless set a new franchise high for wins in one season.
Playing without three of their top five point producers and a few other key regulars, the Blues generated few scoring chances and were outplayed by their former division rival for much of the game.
The Red Wings had a power-play tally by Tomas Tatar midway through the first period waved off when Joakim Andersson was called for interfering Miller, but had a goal count moments later to gain the upper hand.
Datsyuk forced a turnover in the neutral zone before sending a pass to Brian Lashoff, whose long shot bounced off Abdelkader's body and went in as the Detroit forward screened Miller with 6:31 left in the opening frame.
Mrazek made the lead stand up with a diving right pad save on Maxim Lapierre with around eight minutes to go in the second period, and Sheahan made it a 2-0 game when his wrist shot from the left circle went through Miller's pads 3:41 prior to the final intermission.
The Blues put up 10 shots in the third period, but Mrazek turned them all aside to complete the whitewash. Abdelkader put the finishing touches on the victory with a pretty redirection of a Datsyuk feed while skating towards the St. Louis net with 7:17 left to play.
Game Notes
Joe Pavelski reached the 40-goal milestone, then added one for good measure. Antti Niemi made 30 saves and gave up fewer goals than he had in four of his past five starts. Oh, and the Sharks beat the Phoenix Coyotes, 3-2, on Saturday night to head into the playoffs on a two-game winning streak.
Eliminated from the playoff race long ago, the Edmonton Oilers were happy to finish their season with a big win in Ryan Smyth's final game.
The Colorado Avalanche may have already clinched the Central Division before evening stepping onto the ice on Sunday night.
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