(SportsNetwork.com) - The St. Louis Blues have been on an impressive scoring run lately, while the Carolina Hurricanes recently turned in their best offensive performance in quite some time.
Both clubs will try to keep their offenses on track Saturday, when the Blues welcome the Hurricanes for a clash at Scottrade Center.
The Blues have scored a whopping 20 goals over their last three games. St. Louis has scored six or more goals in all three contests, with a 6-0 victory over Arizona coming in the middle of a pair of 7-2 decisions over the San Jose Sharks.
St. Louis is coming off Thursday's rout of the visiting Sharks. Seven different players scored for the Blues in the blowout victory, and Brian Elliott stopped 24 shots for the win.
Alex Steen, Jay Bouwmeester, Paul Stastny, Jori Lehtera, T.J. Oshie, Patrik Berglund and David Backes all lit the lamp for the Blues, who tied a season high for offensive output set in an identical 7-2 victory at San Jose last Saturday,
Jaden Schwartz contributed three assists to the winning effort. Steen also pushed his point streak to five games and has three goals and eight assists during the run.
"I don't think one guy makes seven goals," said Stastny. "We have four lines going well."
The Blues have recorded six or more goals in three straight games for the first time since Dec. 9-15, 2000 (6-4 vs. CHI; 6-1 at CHI, 6-3 at ATL).
Thursday's win opened a seven-game homestand for St. Louis, which boasts a 14-4-1 record at Scottrade Center this season.
Elliott could get the start tonight and is 6-4-0 with a 2.45 goals against average in his career against Carolina.
Carolina is ranked 29th in the NHL with just 2.00 goals per game, but the Hurricanes are hoping to build off a scoring barrage that helped them picked up their third win in four games.
After having scored more than two goals only once in their previous 18 games, the Hurricanes scored three in less than 1 1/2 minutes en route to a 5-2 win over the Buffalo Sabres on Thursday. It marked only the second time this season Carolina posted more than four goals, with the other occasion coming in a 6-4 win at Dallas on Nov. 18.
Jiri Tlusty put Carolina up 2-1 on a 5-on-3 marker at the 13:50 mark of the second period. Less than a minute later, Eric Staal was credited with a wrap- around goal, and Victor Rask followed that up with a goal on a deflection 26 seconds later.
Jeff Skinner and Riley Nash also scored for the Hurricanes, while Ryan Murphy and Justin Faulk each had two assists. Cam Ward stopped 18-of-20 shots to help Carolina win its third straight home game.
"Obviously, it's been talked about it a lot here, the lack of offensive punch," said Staal. "Tonight, we stuck with it after the first. It was pretty chippy, back-and-forth with the puck bouncing, a lot of whistles. We kind of stepped it up in the second period with some big plays and broke it open."
Carolina hopes to stay hot tonight, but it could prove difficult considering the club has struggled mightily on the road this season, going 4-16-2 away from North Carolina. The Hurricanes have lost their last three away games in regulation and have dropped seven of their last eight road tilts.
Staal left Thursday's game after getting shaken up in a collision, but was able to return after going through the NHL's concussion protocol. He is expected to play tonight.
Ward is likely to start in net tonight. He boasts a 5-1-1 record and 1.54 GAA in seven career games against the Blues.
Carolina is 3-1-1 in the last five meetings against the Blues, but St. Louis has posted victories in five of the past seven encounters on its home ice.