BLUESAfter a tough Thanksgiving road trip, the St. Louis Blues found their offense again with a 6-3 win over Columbus back at Enterprise Center on Saturday night. Pavel Buchnevich continued his strong play with two goals and an assist, totaling six points over his last three games.
Buchnevich wasn't the only Russian to make noise on Saturday. Ivan Barbashev added two goals to the winning effort, and Vladimir Tarasenko recorded three assists.
The Blues trailed 1-0 after the first period, but quickly flipped the script and scored three goals each in the second and third periods to take over the game.
"We've been having a tough time the last couple games, we didn't play great," Barbashev said. "I think it was time to turn around things and play simple, hard, and that's what we did in the second, and it looks like the game turned around, and it was good to win the game."
After playing their only game with a full roster all season at Detroit last week, the Blues caught the injury bug again and expect to be without forwards David Perron, Klim Kostin and James Neal on Tuesday.
Logan Brown, a St. Louis native acquired in a trade during this preseason, was called up Sunday and will make his regular-season debut on Tuesday night.
The Blues currently sit with an 11-7-3 record, good for 25 points and trailing only Minnesota for the Central Division lead as of Monday afternoon.
LIGHTNINGThe two-time defending champion Tampa Bay Lightning have been trying to climb back atop the standings after a slow start to their three-peat pursuit. They started the season 2-3-1, but since Oct. 26 are 10-2-2 and trail only the red-hot Maple Leafs and Panthers in the Eastern Conference's Atlantic division.
On Sunday night, the Lightning fell to the Wild 4-2 in Minneapolis, with their goals coming from Corey Perry and Alex Killorn. The Wild broke a 2-2 tie in the third period with a goal from forward Ryan Hartman, and then sealed it with an empty-netter after Lightning goaltender Andrei Vasilevskiy skated to the bench in the closing minutes.
The Wild's first-period goal ended a 141:29 shutout streak for Vasilevskiy, who was coming off of consecutive shutouts against the Flyers and the Kraken.
Backup goaltender Brian Elliott, who spent five seasons with the Blues, is expected to start for Tampa Bay.
Captain Steven Stamkos has been the top point contributor for the Lightning this season, leading the team with 11 goals and 24 points in 20 games played.
The Bolts are also dealing with a slate of injuries. Forward Nikita Kucherov underwent a procedure three games into the season, forward Brayden Point suffered an upper-body injury on Nov. 20, and defenseman Erik Cernak has missed the last eight games but could make his return on Tuesday.
In total, the Lightning sit at 12-5-3, good for 27 points and third place in the Atlantic Division as of Monday afternoon.
HEAD-TO-HEADThe Lightning have won back-to-back Stanley Cups since their last matchup with the Blues - a 4-3 road win for St. Louis on Nov. 27, 2019.
The 734 days between matchups will be followed by just a two-day break as the teams will finish the home-and-home set on Thursday in Tampa Bay.
