Lehtera, Elliott Lead Blues Past Wild

Paul Stastny, Jori Lehtera and Troy Brouwer each had a goal and an assist for the St. Louis Blues, who scored three power-play goals for the first time in more than a year in a 4-1 victory against the struggling Minnesota Wild at Scottrade Center on Saturday. The Blues have earned 13 points in the same stretch even though they have only scored 5 goals in the last 5 games. It also was a breakthrough for Tarasenko, who had gone five games without a goal and had just one in the previous 11 games. Robby Fabbri picked up two assists.

On a play that encapsulated their night, Elliott made a sprawling save on a Nino Niederreiter point blank chance, one of the Wild’s best opportunities in the game.

Second Period-1, St. Louis, Tarasenko 26 (Stastny, Steen) 2:47 (pp). The under is 1-0-4 in the last 5 meetings and is 1-0-3 in the last 4 meetings in St. Louis while the Wild are 4-1 in the last 5 meetings.

According to the Star-Tribune, Fletcher is not conducting any interviews until the Wild’s current roadtrip ends on Saturday in St. Louis. Leading scorer Vladimir Tarasenko, who scored 24 goals in his first 41 games this season, has tallied only once in the last 11 contests and has failed to find the scoresheet in the past five contests. “We’re going to St. Louis and I’m pretty sure they’re not going to give us a gift”. Graovac was injured in the Wild’s season-opening win at Colorado on October 8. It was the first time the Wild had allowed two power-play goals since November 17.

Minnesota’s 24 shots in the second period set a franchise road record for any period, and was St. Louis’ season high for shots given up in a period. The power-play goal came 32 seconds after center Mikko Koivu was called for elbowing Blues’ left winger Scottie Upshall. From the slot, he one-timed Fabbri’s pass from below the goal line for the Blues’ third power-play goal.

“He’s been the best player for our team for a long time and he played a good game today as well”, Lehtera said of Elliott.

It was the Blues’ first power-play goal in eight-plus games, snapping a streak that went to January 12. NOTES: Wild D Jonas Brodin is expected to miss three to six weeks because of a broken foot sustained in Thursday night’s game…. Wild F Jason Zucker and F Thomas Vanek were healthy scratches.