Blues take the fight to Blackhawks

Rookie Brandon Bollig took the fight to St. Louis on the first shift of his first game in front of his hometown fans, winning a decision against tough guy Ryan Reaves.

But in the end the Blues took it to the Blackhawks with their relentless physical play, taking the fight out of them early in a 5-1 thumping that brought the Hawks' three-game winning streak to a grinding halt.

The victory propelled St. Louis to the top of the Western Conference with 91 points and cemented the Blues' case as probably the last team you'd want to meet in the playoffs.

They can score, they have solid goaltending, and, man, can they bring the physical as they did early and often Tuesday, ending up with a 27-11 advantage in that department.

“Probably one of their goals was to play physical against us,” Patrick Kane told reporters after the game. “We knew they were going to come out hard. It seemed to work for them.”

The Blues got all the scoring they would need in the first period on goals by T.J. Oshie and Andy McDonald.

Andrew Brunette scored the only goal for the Hawks on a redirection of a Brent Seabrook. It was the first goal for Brunette in 27 games.

Just as ugly as the disparity in hits Tuesday — if not more so — was how the Blues held the Hawks to a total of 3 shots on 5 power-play opportunities.

“We had a chance to get ourselves back in the game with the power play. That's where we lost the momentum,” coach Joel Quenneville said. “We didn't push back in certain areas.

“They were competitive tonight, and we weren't.”

All this just when the power play looked like it was coming to life a little during the Hawks' recent winning streak.

“We clicked on the power play in the three (previous) games, but tonight we couldn't settle the puck down, couldn't make a pass,” Marian Hossa said.

In addition to going 0-fer with the man advantage, the Hawks allowed St. Louis to tally a short-handed goal early in the second period to go up 3-0 and all but seal the deal.

“We didn't deserve to win tonight,” Hossa said.

Now the question is where do the streaky Hawks go from here?

As NHL.com pointed out recently, since Jan. 15 they have won three straight, lost nine straight, won four straight, lost three straight and won three straight.

Now they've lost one and have the tough-as-nails New York Rangers coming to town Friday.

It just doesn't get any easier.

mspellman@dailyherald.com