OTTAWA, Ontario (AP) — St. Louis coach Mike Yeo put Jake Allen in goal, and it worked out quite well for the Blues.
Allen made 30 saves, Vladimir Tarasenko scored twice and St. Louis beat the Ottawa Senators 6-0 on Tuesday night.
Magnus Paajarvi, Patrik Berglund, Alexander Steen and Ivan Barbashev also scored for the Blues (27-22-5), who have won three of four. Paul Stastny and David Perron added two assists apiece.
St. Louis shut out Philadelphia 2-0 on Monday night behind Carter Hutton’s 26 saves, but Yeo opted for Allen against the Senators and he responded with his second shutout of the season.
“What I’ve done in the past, what the organization has done in the past, is after a shutout you come back with that same goaltender, but given the way that Jake has played lately we had confidence in him coming into this game,” Yeo said. “We knew it was going to be a good test and he would be tested and he was outstanding.”
Ottawa goaltender Andrew Hammond had 24 saves in his first start since Dec. 18. He had been sidelined by a high ankle sprain.
The Senators (27-18-6) were coming off a 4-0 loss at Buffalo on Saturday night. They dropped to 1-3-1 in their last five games.
Senators coach Guy Boucher made each of his players sit in the locker room and answer questions from the media after the lopsided loss to the Blues.
“We didn’t look good and we didn’t do collectively what we normally do consistently,” Boucher said. “This was about facing the music together. We win as a team and we lose as a team. The coaching staff is there, also, ready to face the music and the players also.
“When you get adversity it builds you or destroys you and I always choose the building part and I think the players sticking together is the first part of the building.”
Hammond started in place of Mike Condon, who got the night off after making 27 consecutive appearances.
Much of the crowd headed for the exits after St. Louis made it 4-0 midway through the third on Steen’s 11th of the season off his own rebound after a Mike Hoffman giveaway. Minutes later Tarasenko scored his second and Barbashev made it 6-0 on yet another giveaway.
“Generally when we lose I think we come in and we can honestly say it wasn’t for a lack of effort, tonight is the exception in that regard,” Ottawa’s Bobby Ryan said. “We were stale, flat, whatever word you want to use for it. We didn’t have the jump early.”
St. Louis jumped in front with two goals in the second. Paajarvi beat Hammond for his second of the season at 1:51, and Tarasenko used a great pass from Paul Stastny to make it 2-0 at 6:46.
Berglund jumped on a rebound for an early power-play goal in the third. The Senators challenged the play, arguing the Blues were offside, but the review was inconclusive.
Hammond was tested in the opening minutes of the game and made a couple of good saves on Jori Lehtera and Kenny Agostino.
NOTES: St. Louis has won five of its last seven road games after winning just five of its first 17. … Ottawa C Curtis Lazar was a healthy scratch for the second time in four games. D Fredrik Claesson also was a healthy scratch for the Senators. … St. Louis scratched RW Nail Yakupov, RW Dmitrij Jaskin and D Carl Gunnarsson.
