Ville Husso and Pavel Buchnevich help the Blues defeat the Capitals.

Husso’s ailment has kept him out of action for a month.
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Ville Husso made 26 saves, Pavel Buchnevich netted two goals and added an assist, and the St. Louis Blues defeated the Washington Capitals 5-1 on Friday night.

In addition, goals from Torey Krug, Oskar Sundqvist, and Ivan Barbashev helped the Blues go to 8-2-2 in their previous 12 games and 10-0-1 in their previous 11 at home. Robert Thomas and Ryan O’Reilly both contributed two more assists.

Regarding the Blues’ success at home, St. Louis coach Craig Berube remarked, “Well, I believe we score quite a bit here at home.” “That seems to be the most prominent thing that comes to mind.”

Husso had not played since he was injured on December 7.

Pavel Buchnevich, second from left, of the St. Louis Blues, is applauded after scoring a goal against the Washington Capitals on Friday, January 7, 2022, in St. Louis during the third period of an NHL hockey game.(Photo by Joe Puetz/AP)

Husso remarked, “It can be difficult to return sometimes after not playing for a month.” “We had a great win and a nice hockey game.”

Berube was pleased with Husso’s performance.

He was all set to go. He recovered and has had a great deal of practice,” Berubke remarked. “He performed admirably for us once more tonight this year. simply prevails in games.”

Washington, which has lost in regulation for three of the previous twelve games (6-3-3), got a goal from Daniel Sprong.

After allowing four goals on 16 shots in the first two periods, Zach Fucale stopped every one of the seven shots he faced in the third.

The Washington coach, Peter Laviolette, stated, “The game just hadn’t gone the way we wanted.” “We want to make a change at that point, bring Fucale back in the net, and give him some time.”

Due to a tiebreaker with the New York Rangers, the Capitals started the game leading the Metropolitan Division. However, after Carolina defeated Calgary, they were passed and currently trail the Rangers.

In the second half, goals by Buchnevich, Sundqvist, and Barbashev gave St. Louis a 4-1 advantage. Just six shots on goal were made during the scoring spurt against Samsonov, who has given up three goals or more in six of his eight starts since the start of December.

At 9:08, Buchnevich scored a one-timer from the top of the slot to give St. Louis a 2-1 lead. The Blues got a power-play opportunity early in the game, but this was their first shot on goal. With 2:40 left in the period, Sundqvist scored on a rebound of a Justin Faulk shot, and Barbashev’s goal, which came from a fast wrist shot from the slot, came just before the timer went off and the whistle sounded.

With 3:52 remaining in the third, Buchnevich added his 13th of the season with an empty-net goal.

At 2:02 in the game, Sprong gave Washington the lead with a wrist shot from the right circle after receiving a pass from Aliaksei Protas along the boards.

“You know, I don’t need much time to get it off and I found the corner, and Protas made a good play to the middle,” Sprong remarked.

With 7:50 remaining in the game, Krug’s goal gave St. Louis a 1-1 lead. In the left faceoff circle, Thomas found Krug with a nice cross-ice pass. Krug hoisted a wrist shot high for the score.

To be honest, I think Krug’s goal really helped us settle in,” Berube remarked. “After that, we merely started taking necessary action against them.”

Husso played well for the Blues in the opening frame. At 1:53, he stopped a Capitals 3-on-1 break with a save on a left skate kick. Despite having multiple scoring opportunities in the first ten minutes of the game—including one by Alex Ovechkin only 32 seconds in—Washington only tallied one goal.

Husso, who has a.953 save % and is 6-0 in his previous seven home games, added, “Those are the kind of fortuitous saves.” “It makes you feel good. When you make those saves and are fully focused on the game, they are the ones that matter.”

The last 10:22 of the period saw no shots on goal for the Capitals.

Following last Sunday’s 4-3 overtime setback to the New Jersey Devils at home, Washington had not played. The game against Montreal on Tuesday was postponed because to COVID-19 restrictions, which resulted in a lengthy layoff for Washington.

The COVID-19 Protocol

The NHL added Blues RW Vladimir Tarasenko, D Scott Perunovich, and F Jake Walman to their roster of players subject to COVID-19 guidelines. After missing the opening game of the season, Tarasenko has played in 11 games with six goals and five assists. This season, 17 Blues players have been placed on COVID-19 protocols. Meanwhile, Washington’s Martin Fehervary and Dennis Cholowski have returned to the active roster and are no longer on COVID-19 procedures.

ICE CUPS

Uppercase RW In his 600th career game, Tom Wilson participated for the Blues D Robert Bortuzzo returned to action after missing three games as a result of being placed on the COVID-19 procedures list.

PERSONAL HARM

RW T.J. Oshie (non-COVID illness) and C Nicklas Backstrom (non-COVID illness) were placed on injured reserve by the Capitals. None of them traveled to St. Louis. They played their final game at Detroit on December 31.