Savvis Center - St. Louis Blues

Trip Notes: I was in and out of St. Louis before you could say Keith Tkachuk. Ok, so a little longer than that, but not much. I was basically there for 1 day and 1 night. Therefore there won’t be much when it comes to these trip notes. ;) After picking up my rental car, I headed strait to the Steak n’ Shake for lunch. I was highly recommended to by a friend to check it out. After I crammed my stomach with food, I headed over to my friend Heather’s sister Heidi’s house where I would be staying the night. Heather just happened to be in town from FL the same weekend so I got to see her as well. Before heading to the game, they took me to the legendary Ted Drew’s to get some custard. That was some good stuff! After that, I headed to the Blues game. That pretty much sums it up. A short weekend made up of food, sleep, and hockey….the essentials. : )

Arena Notes: The Saavis Center was located close to the highway so it was easy to get to. Parking wasn’t too far away and pretty easy to exit after the game. My seats were great, 3rd level center ice. It was close to ¾ full for the Saturday night Kings game. Good fans. The arena was built in 1994 so it was fairly new and holds 21,000 hockey fans. I don't believe they have a mascot.

Game Notes: Playing in one-goal games has become quite familiar to the St. Louis Blues.
Pavol Demitra and Eric Nickulas scored first-period goals and Chris Osgood made 21 saves to lead the Blues past the Los Angeles Kings 2-1 Saturday night. The Blues are 13-6 in one-goal games this season and 18-6-2-1 overall.
" src="http://www.hockeepuck.com/images/me/nhl/blues/1.jpg"
Osgood said his job is to stop pucks but he wouldn't mind a little more offense.
"I think we'd like to score a little more and we've been having some trouble putting teams away after getting leads but we held the fort," Osgood said. "Hey, it's a tough league. I mean every team is good and there are no easy nights."
The Blues have not lost to the Kings at home since the 2001-2002 season and are 3-0 against Los Angeles this season. St. Louis is 10-2-1-0 at home, including a 4-1 win over Los Angeles on Dec. 2. The Blues also beat the Kings 1-0 on Nov. 15 in Los Angeles.
Osgood earned his 289th career victory, which ranks sixth among active players. Los Angeles backup Cristobal Huet faced 27 shots.
Winning the close games suits St. Louis coach Joel Quenneville, who said these wins will help his club later in the season.
"I think there's something we can gain from these games," Quenneville said. "Not too many games do you get a two-goal lead and you're in control the whole game. Teams find a way to get back in the game. Hopefully, this will help us down the road."
Weight agreed.
"This is great training for us," Weight said. "I don't necessarily like winning 2-1 or 3-2 or 3-2 in overtime. It takes a lot out of you. We're practicing the way we're going to have to win in those big games against great teams late in the year in March, April, May and June.
"We bend but we don't break. Games are going to be close and you have to know how to win them."
Demitra scored on a nifty move in front of the net at 5:14 of the first period. From the left corner, Murray Baron passed to Demitra, who faked right. Huet went down to block the attempt, but Demitra went left around him and popped the puck in for his 10th goal.
Nickulas deflected in Chris Pronger's wrist shot from the top of the left circle at 17:44 for a 2-0 St. Louis lead.
"Our 2-0 leads are always early," Osgood said. "There's always a lot of hockey left to be played."
There were nine penalties called in the second period. St. Louis had four power-play chances and the Kings had three, but neither could take advantage. The lone goal of the period came when Zigmund Palffy put back a rebound of his own shot from the right circle at 2:46, cutting the Blues lead to 2-1.
The Blues have not given up a power-play goal in eight home games, killing all 27 attempts. Overall, St. Louis has allowed just one power-play goal in seven games, killing 26 short-handed situations.
St. Louis improved to 15-1-1 when leading after two periods.
The Blues went 0-for-6 on the power play.
"We played real hard for 40 minutes but we shot ourselves in the foot in the first period," Los Angeles coach Andy Murray said. "We didn't have all of our good players playing real hard in the first period." Notes: The Blues signed forward Steve McLaren from Worcester of the AHL. McLaren is replacing Reed Low, who is on the injured list with cracked ribs. ... Kings G Milan Hnilicka dressed for his first game this season. Hnilicka was recalled Friday from Manchester of the AHL. Starting G Roman Cechmanek is out with a bruised hip sustained Thursday at Nashville.
(*Game Notes taken from espn.com*)