Backes, Allen Lead Blues To 3-0 Win Over Stars
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ST. LOUIS (AP) — David Backes made the most of "Captains Night" and helped the St. Louis Blues get another win against the Dallas Stars.
Backes, the team's current captain, was honored before the game along with 11 former Blues captains. Backes followed that up with a goal and an assist, Jake Allen stopped 26 shots for his fourth shutout of the season, and the Blues beat the Stars 3-0 on Saturday night.
Vladimir Tarasenko and Ryan Reaves scored in the third period to help the Blues beat the Stars for the third consecutive time. It also ended St. Louis' four-game losing streak at home to Dallas dating back to Nov. 23, 2013.
"It's one of the better efforts we've had as a group and when you've got the team with the best record in the league, you know you're going to need it," Backes said.
Backes also got into a fight with Stars forward Jamie Benn in the first period, earning the Gordie Howe hat trick — a goal, assist and fight.
"(Backes) was great," Allen said. "You could just tell he had a little something extra in his eyes."
Antti Niemi stopped 23 of 26 shots for the Stars, but fell to 9-9 in his career against the Blues.
The loss also snapped a nine-game point road streak for the Stars in which they went 7-0-2. Dallas (22-6-2) still has a league-best 46 points.
"Our goaltender gave us an incredible first and I thought we responded well," Stars coach Lindy Ruff said. "I thought the Benn fight from that point on I thought we were the better team."
The Blues, at 17-8-4, are second behind the Stars in the Central Division with 38 points.
Allen improved to 2-1 in his career against the Stars and got his ninth career shutout.
"You're not going to shut them down, they had their scoring chances, but you've just got to make it hard for them," Blues coach Ken Hitchcock said. "That's what we did today for the first and third period we at least made it hard for them."
Backes' power play goal at 2:00 in the first period gave the Blues a 1-0 lead. It was Backes' 53rd career power play goal, which moved him out of a ninth-place tie with Brendan Shanahan for most in franchise history.
"It was nice to capitalize on the first power play, but I think if you re-watch that next 10 minutes we were all over them," Backes said. "With the quality of chances and the spots we were shooting from you'd of hoped to get one or two more and bury them earlier when you have those opportunities."
The first period ended with a pair of fights, with the first bout between the teams' two captains — Backes and Benn.
One minute later, Blues defenseman Petteri Lindbohm fought Stars forward Antoine Roussel after Lindbohm took exception to a hit Roussel made on Dmitrij Jaskin along the boards.
The Blues put the game away on third-period goals from Tarasenko and Reaves.
It was the first time that the Stars were shutout this season.
"Allen played good," Benn said. "We didn't make it hard enough on him. You know he saw a lot of pucks and we definitely a needed to score on the power play and didn't."
The Blues killed all four of the Stars' power plays, including a 5-on-3 chance late in the third. St. Louis has been successful in 17 straight penalty kills and hasn't given up a power play goal in seven games.
"They are the best team in the league for a reason," Allen said. "You give them chances they're most likely going to capitalize and tonight we did a good job in not giving them anything."
NOTES: Among the former captains honored were Eric Brewer, Al MacInnis, Brett Hull, Garth Butcher, Rick Meagher, Bernie Federko, Barry Gibbs, Bob Plager, Frank St. Marseille, Garry Unger, and the late Barclay Plager who was represented by his wife Helen. ... Blues D Kevin Shattenkirk's assist on Backes' goal was his 16th career helper against the Stars, the most by any Dallas opponent. ... Benn has 399 career points for the Stars.
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