New Jersey Devils 0 St. Louis Blues 2

The St. Louis Blues played the first of two east coast games against the New Jersey Devils tonight and for the second game in a row, Blues goaltender Jake Allen was a brick wall. Extending the teams record to 11-3-1 on the season, Jake Allen lead the team to his third shutout of the season. Among other key notes from Tuesday night’s game, recently signed veteran Martin Havlat scored the game winning goal in his debut with the Blues. To top it off, in the 3rd period Magnus Paajarvi got his first goal of the year to give the Blues some insurance.

“We were two steps behind, not even one step behind in the first and then played a great second and a great third…you know we got up to the speed of the game.”

The Blues came out to a sluggish start in the 1st period that had many fans worried that something might have sapped their energy from the 4-0 shut out win against Nashville several nights ago. Jake Allen made 11 saves during the first to help keep the score tied at 0-0. Blues head coach Ken Hitchcock said this after the game, “We were two steps behind, not even one step behind in the first and then played a great second and a great third…you know we got up to the speed of the game.”

The Blues did just that when the puck dropped for the 2nd period. The Blues seemed to have come alive and started to put some serious pressure on the Devils. Almost five minutes into the 2nd period, Scott Gomez and Troy Brouwer each assisted on the 1st goal of the game by Martin Havlat. Havlat took a pass from Gomez right in the slot and snapped the puck home beating Devils net minder Cory Schneider on the stick side.

In the 3rd period, Jake Allen continued to impress with key saves to keep the Blues in the lead. The insurance goal was scored by none other than Magnus Paajarvi (I made a bet with a family member he would score) from a rather lucky pass by Dmitrji Jaskin. Jaskin who was tied up in the slot in front of Schneider, somehow was able to tap pass the puck toward Paajarvi who stopped and sent a wrist shot to the net beating Schnieder blocker side. As the period whined down the Devils tried to pressure the Blues and Allen, but to no avail. They almost scored at the buzzer but the goal was waved off.

In the last seven appearances for Jake Allen he has now posted a 6-1-0 record, and also recording a 0.88 GAA (Goals Against Average), and a .971 SV% (Save Percentage). All three of his shut outs are within this seven game span and now has Allen tied for first in shut outs with Philidelphia goalie Michal Neuvirth.

He is second behind Colorado Avalanche goalie, Retto Berra, in both overall GAA and Sv% on the year. Allen has stopped every shot he has faced and right now his consecutive shutout minutes is 165:59 which starts all the way back in the November 4th game against the Chicago Blackhawks.

Allen’s record for consecutive shutout minutes is 184:38, which he set last year from games between October 23rd to November 6th. The Blues return to action Thursday against the New York Rangers at Madison Square Garden at 6 pm EST.