Panthers put road streak to the test at St. Louis

With 21 points through their first 17 games, the Florida 2000. That also happens to be the last time the club made the playoffs.

Outstanding road play has been key and the Panthers will try to match the longest road winning streak in club history this evening against the St. Louis Blues.

Florida has won three of its last four games and is even with Washington for first place in the Southeast Division thanks to a 9-5-3 record. That is the Panthers' best start since they opened up their last playoff season with a 9-4-2-2 mark.

The club heads to St. Louis following a 6-0 rout in Dallas on Tuesday. The win was the Panthers' fourth in a row on the road, one shy of the club record for consecutive victories as the guest set from Nov. 30-Dec. 12, 2008.

In his first start of the season, Scott Clemmensen stopped all 25 shots faced for his seventh career shutout. Six different Panthers scored, with Stephen Weiss and Kris Versteeg notching a goal and two assists each.

"We caught a team coming off the road, and I think that is a legitimate thing," Panthers head coach Kevin Dineen said. "When teams come off the road, there's something about it that makes it hard to come out. I think we smelled some opportunity."

Tomas Fleischmann also scored, giving him a pair of goals and three assists in his past three games.

Florida did lose Matt Bradley to an upper-body injury in the second period and he is questionable for tonight along with Jake Skille (lower body).

The Panthers are 7-3-0 as the guest this season, but have struggled in St. Louis as of late. Though they have taken four of the past six meetings, the Blues own a 6-3-1 record in their last 10 home games against Florida.

St. Louis concludes a five-game homestand tonight that began with the debut of new head coach Ken Hitchcock. The Blues are 3-0-1 since he took over for a fired Payne Davis and are coming off Tuesday's 2-1 victory over the Red Wings.

Brian Elliott made 21 saves to move to 7-1-0 on the season with his third straight victory. The Blues have allowed just eight goals in their past six games.

"He made some huge stops for us," Alexander Steen said of Elliott. "That's what inspires the guys."

Steen scored the game-winner midway through the second period and Matt D'Agostini also scored for the Blues, who are 6-1-1 at home this year.

Forward Chris Stewart will serve the first of his three-game suspension tonight for a hit from behind on Detroit's Niklas Kronwall in Tuesday's win.