Alex Steen's perseverence paid off finally. Entering the game, he was St. Louis' leader in shots on goal, but he hadn't scored. His shortie in the second period set up David Perron got past Pekka Rinne to break a scoreless game. Patrik Berglund and Matt D'Agostini each scored their fourth of the season in the third period to put away the Preds. There's still a lack of scoring punch, but they've been high-volume shooters (3rd in the league entering the game). Shooting the puck, defending and having a good goalie will take a hockey team far. And something's truly going right when Berglund and D'Agostini are lighting it up. T.J. Oshie assisted on D'Agostini's goal, giving him points in seven straight games.
The win was the second consecutive shutout for Jaroslav Halak, who lowered his GAA to 1.57 and improved his save percentage to .939. I could throw a gratuitous shot in here at the Canadiens for letting him go in favor of Carey Price, but Price has been pretty good himself. Halak has been good and consistent and even-keeled, for sure, and deserves credit for his contributions to St. Louis' 5-1-2 start, but te Blues' defense have him in a rocker back there. St. Louis is giving up a league-low 25.5 shots per game and is second-only to Boston at 14 goals allowed.
Not only did Thursday's win hand the Predators their first regulation loss of the season, and not only did it give St. Louis its first road win of the season, but the win avenged the Blues lone regulation loss, two weeks after falling 4-3 in Nashville. Payback's been a theme lately. St. Louis lost an overtime game to Chicago 10 days ago -- a game it had in hand -- and came back to beat the 'hawks four days later at home. In between the revenge wins was Halak's blanking of the Penguins 1-0, last Saturday at Scottrade Center.
After its 2-0 start at home, the Blues hit some adversity, going 0-1-2 on their first road trip. Well, they've rallied back in a big way with wins over the past two Stanley Cup champs and win over a division rival in Nashville. By the way, have you checked out the Central Division of the Western Conference lately? While it's early, all five teams are seeded within the top eight of the Western Conference.
The Blues head back home, where they are 4-0-0, to play Atlanta on Saturday.