Another showdown with one of the NHL’s top teams, another win for the Blues. Mike Eastwood and Michal Handzus scored for St. Louis, and Roman Turek made 19 saves, as the Blues beat Washington 2-1. The Caps entered the game with the league’s best record since Christmas, but Eastwood scored just 16 seconds into the game to give the Blues the lead. Later in the first, Handzus took a feed from behind the net from Pavol Demitra, and scored his 25th goal. The Handzus goal came as many of the goals have for the Blues Slovakian line of Handzus, Pavol Demitra and Lubos Bartecko. Those three do a marvelous job of “cycling”, passing the puck to one another along the boards behind the net and into the corners. They cycle the puck back and forth, holding off the defenders, until one of them comes open in front of the net. Blues’ goaltender Roman Turek was beaten on a Ken Klee slapshot in the second, but stopped several good chances late. The Blues now have 101 points. They travel to Carolina tomorrow.
