Blues hope to get win streak started against Coyotes

(SportsNetwork.com) - The St. Louis Blues will try to post consecutive wins for the first time in weeks when they visit the Arizona Coyotes for Tuesday's battle at Gila River Arena.

The Blues' last winning streak was a five-gamer from Dec. 6-16. St. Louis has gone 2-5-1 since then, but both of those victories have come over the club's last four games.

St. Louis, which is two points ahead of Winnipeg for the third and final automatic playoff bid in the Central Division, was able to halt a two-game slide in convincing fashion the last time out.

The Blues recorded a 7-2 win Saturday in San Jose, scoring the game's last five goal to skate away with two points. T.J. Oshie recorded his second career hat trick to fuel the rout of the Sharks.

Oshie added an assist in the onslaught, which saw the Blues record a season- high in goals. Alexander Steen and Kevin Shattenkirk posted their own four- point performances with a goal and three assists apiece.

"It's nice to get them, it's even better just to get the two points," said Oshie.

Brian Elliott, making his second start since returning from a knee injury, made 18 saves for St. Louis, which had dropped five straight on the road coming in.

The Blues, who are capping a four-game road trip tonight, are 10-9-2 as the guest this season. St. Louis will begin a seven-game homestand on Thursday, when it hosts a rematch with the Sharks.

St. Louis will turn to Elliott again tonight. He is 4-2-0 with a 1.99 goals against average in six career games against the Coyotes.

Arizona has played some of its best hockey of the season of late, winning four of its last five tilts. The lone loss of that stretch came in a 6-0 rout at Dallas on Wednesday, but the Coyotes rebounded with Saturday's 6-3 win over the visiting Columbus Blue Jackets.

Oliver Ekman-Larsson, Sam Gagner and Martin Hanzal scored in the second period as Arizona came from behind to defeat Columbus. Hanzal added three assists, Gagner ended up scoring twice, while Tobias Rieder and Kyle Chipchura also lit the lamp for the Coyotes.

Mike Smith backed up his offense with a 23-save victory.

"It was by far one of our best games of the year," Smith said. "We were just swarming all over the ice."

Saturday's tilt marked only the third time this season the Coyotes have scored at least six times (7-4 W in Edmonton on Oct. 15 and 6-5 W at Washington on Nov. 2).

The rout of Columbus began a six-game stay on home ice for the Coyotes, who are just 8-8-3 as the host this season.

Arizona will try to keep the offense coming tonight, but it hasn't had much success against the Blues in recent years. St. Louis has won three straight, six of seven and nine of the last 11 meetings overall and has claimed five in a row in the desert.

Smith is 4-8-0 with a 3.42 GAA in 12 lifetime starts against the Blues. Fellow Coyotes goaltender Devan Dubnyk is 0-7-0 with a lofty 4.72 GAA when facing St. Louis.