A little bit of everything, Blues, NCAA, and baseball

1. On Tuesday night, the Blues didn't waste any time erasing the bad memories from Saturday's game against the Panthers. They got on the board just 59 seconds into the contest on a laser of a wrist shot from David Backes. Later in the first period, David Perron and Brad Winchester would each add another goal, tripling the Blues' total of first period goals from their previous 11 games in just one frame.

The Stars kept coming back, cutting the three-goal deficit to two twice before the Blues finally got it to a 5-2 lead. The third period was scoreless, but the fans already had their free blizzards and the Blues already had their two points since they managed to play smart in the third, not needing to take chances with a three-goal lead.

The Blues are now just three points out of the seven slot in the Western Conference behind the Oilers and they have a game in hand on the Predators who hold the eighth slot, also three points ahead of St. Louis. The club continued to get solid play out of goaltender Chris Mason. The two goals he allowed weren’t great ones, but he still limited the damage and didn’t let anything in until it was already 3-0. The Blues also got more strong play from the “Kid line.” Perron’s finally starting to play with urgency. On what looked to be an innocent play where the Stars were just going to carry the puck out of their zone, Perron dove, whipped his stick around on the ice, and knocked the puck away. T.J. Oshie got control of it outside the Dallas zone, made a great move to get around a Stars defender, and then set up Perron for a shot on a wide open net. Perron put it right in the center of the goal, putting St. Louis up 4-1 midway through the second period. The teams would swap goals one more time, with “Big Walt” (Keith Tkachuk) getting a tally on the power play, tying him for 10^th all-time with Joe Sakic for career power play goals.

The Blues have owned the Stars this year for whatever reason. They have managed to chase the Stars’ number one goalie Marty Turco in both of Dallas’ visits to St. Louis. They also turned a 1-0 third period deficit into a 3-1 win on the road. The “Kid line” was also the spark in that game, which means playing them together against the Stars for the teams’ final meeting in Dallas on April 4^th is a must.

Tonight’s game against the Sharks won’t be easy. San Jose has been dealing with a bunch of injuries lately, but they’re still tied for the most points in the NHL. We’ll get a little bit of a break with veteran defenseman Rob Blake and starting net minder Evgeni Nabokov missing this road trip. However, I went to a game last year when backup Brian Boucher got the start in goal and we were shutout. If we take the Sharks lightly, it could easily happen again.

That being said, the Blues have played very competitively with the Sharks in all three meetings this season, including a 3-2 shootout win at home on December 27^th. Both road games were 5-4 losses, one of which they earned a point in a shootout. They had two-goal leads in both games and probably could’ve won them both. The Blues are a very young team who was consistently losing those types of games earlier in the year. They’re starting to win them now, so they can certainly skate with the Sharks. This game also is interesting from a playoffs standpoint, as it could serve as a first-round preview with the Sharks likely to finish second or better in the conference and the Blues more than likely will finish as the seven or eight seed if they can squeak in.

2. On another note entirely, I’m pretty much ignoring the WorldBaseball Classic, but I’ve seen parts of a few games. The Netherlands upsetting the Dominican Republic was hilarious the first time. The second time, when they knocked the Dominicans out was even better. The Netherlands allowed a run in the top of the 11^th inning before coming back to score twice in the bottom half. I only saw the highlights of that game, but it was pretty incredible, seeing as the only major league players that I recognized were the Christmas judge puncher (Sidney Ponson) and the Milwaukee sausage swatter (Randall Simon).

3. The St. Louis Univeristy Billikens’ season ended with a very disappointing finish earlier today. They got routed by Xavier a day after squeaking out an overtime win against La Salle in the Atlantic 10 tournament’s opening round. SLU lost to La Salle at home on Senior Night after losing to St. Bonneventure on the road. If they had won either of these games, both of which they should have, they would’ve avoided Xavier in the quarterfinals, which I feel is the only A-10 team that they couldn’t hang with on a neutral floor. The second best team in the conference is Dayton, who SLU lost to by just one on the road and beat at home. Coach Rick Majerus is making progress. Freshman guard Kwamain Mitchell was the team’s third leading scorer behind seniors Kevin Lisch and Tommy Liddell. In a conference that’s well below the major conferences (even though they have a shot to get as many teams into the Big Dance as the SEC this year), they should be able to compete on a higher level than this. If the team doesn’t at least make the NIT next season and make the NCAA tournament by the 2010-11 season, Majerus’ fourth year, firing Brad Soderberg could look like a mistake. The team’s star seniors Lisch and Liddell both took steps back with the arrival Majerus and the lack of postseason basketball will have a lot of SLU fans wondering “What if?”

4. The Big 12 tournament keeps getting better for Mizzou. On Wednesday, Texas A&M, who destroyed the Tigers in their regular season finale, blew a 21-point second half lead against Texas Tech, who the Tigers beat by 11 in Columbia. Next, the Baylor Bears upset the top-seeded Kansas Jayhawks, meaning the Tigers won’t have to beat Kansas a second time to win the Big 12 tournament. If they beat Tech tonight, they’ll have to go through Oklahoma, but the Sooners could get tired out by their in-state rivals Oklahoma State. Get by Oklahoma to the title game and they’ll be in serious business, seeing the winner of Baylor and Kansas State/Texas, who Mizzou was 3-1 against during the regular season. If the Tigers run the table, they’ll have to be at least a three-seed and will certainly have a shot at a two, giving the Tigers a much better shot at a deep run then if they were a four or five seed.

5. The Cardinals got four shutout innings from Chris Carpenter today as the Redbirds came back for a 4-2 win over Boston in the Grapefruit League. He allowed just two hits and two walks while striking out one batter. I know it's just spring training, but this news is encouraging. I still won't believe anything until he pitches in the regular season, as he got hurt on Opening Day in 2007. However, this team could be very competitive if the 2005 NL Cy Young winner returns to that kind of form in 2009.