Blues goaltender Patrick Lalime made 19 saves as the Blues topped the Canucks 4-2 on Wednesday. Earlier this season, no other NHL team bit when the Blues put Lalime on waivers. He was sent to the Blues’ minor league team in Peoria. On Wednesday, he made his first appearance in goal since that happened.
The Blues gave Lalime something to work with early on by scoring three times in the first period. Petr Cajanek scored at the 9:48 mark to break a scoreless tie. Richard Park’s goal at the 14:18 mark tied it up at 1-1. In the final three minutes St. Louis struck twice with goals from Vladimir Orszagh (4) and Mark Rycroft (5) to give the Blues a 3-1 lead.
Todd Bertuzzi’s power-play goal at the 3:57 mark of the second period cut the Blues’ lead to 4-2. It stayed that way until Keith Tkachuk scored the final goal of the game at the 7:45 mark of the third period.
The victory snapped the Blues’ 10-game road losing streak—their last road win was on December 28th. They’ve now won three straight for the first time this season and have notched four wins in their last five games. The current winning ways began after the team traded away Doug Weight and Mike Sillinger, their top-two scorers.