Preview: Blues at Coyotes

[March 18, 2017]  The St. Louis Blues and Arizona Coyotes will get to know each other rather well in the next 12 days, as the clubs face off on Saturday in the first of three meetings in that span. Facing the cellar-dwelling Coyotes likely is music to the ears of the red-hot Blues, who have won six of seven to reside two points behind Nashville for third place in the Central while moving four points up on Los Angeles for the final wild-card spot in the Western Conference.

Vladimir Tarasenko (team-leading 34 goals) continued his offensive surge in Thursday's 4-1 triumph over San Jose, recording his second two-goal performance in four contests and seventh of the season. The 25-year-old Russian has seven points (six points, one assist) in his last six games overall and ravaged Arizona with three goals and two assists as St. Louis completed a three-game series sweep last season. For all of their troubles, the Coyotes have earned points in six of their last seven contests and ran their point streak to four games (3-0-1) on Thursday with a 5-4 shootout loss to Detroit. "We want our young guys to push right until the end," Arizona coach Dave Tippett said. "We want our veteran guys to push right until the end. If we do that, it should lead to some points."

TV: 9 p.m. ET, FSN Midwest (St. Louis), FSN Arizona, NHL.TV

ABOUT THE BLUES (37-28-5): Alexander Steen has matched now-Washington defenseman Kevin Shattenkirk with a team-high 31 assists after setting up four goals in his last six games. The 33-year-old added two goals to reach 300 points for his career as a member of the Blues, and a date with Arizona likely will boost those totals as Steen had two goals and two assists versus the struggling club last season. Steen notched an assist on Tarasenko's power-play goal in the third period on Thursday, marking the third time in four games that St. Louis has scored with the man advantage.

ABOUT THE COYOTES (26-35-9): Veteran forward Radim Vrabata collected a point for the 14th time in his last 18 games after recording his team-leading 17th goal and 51st point on Thursday. While struggling Arizona has been forced to rely on the 35-year-old, it has received an unexpected offensive boost from rookie defenseman Jakob Chychrun. The 18-year-old scored to forge a 4-4 tie on Thursday for his fifth point (two goals, three assists) in his last four games.

OVERTIME

1. St. Louis captain Alex Pietrangelo has eight points (one goal, seven assists) in his last 10 games.

2. Arizona D Alex Goligoski scored and set up a goal on Thursday to increase his point total to 10 (three goals, seven assists) in the past 15 games.

3. Captain Shane Doan (lower body) and D Luke Schenn (upper body) are considered day-to-day by the Coyotes, who wrap up their season series vs. the Blues with a home-and-home set on March 27 and 29.

PREDICTION: Blues 3, Coyotes 1

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