St. Louis Blues Hunt for Fifth Straight Win in Battle with Anaheim Ducks

January 8, 2016; Anaheim, CA, USA; St. Louis Blues center Robby Fabbri (15) moves the puck against Anaheim Ducks defenseman Josh Manson (42) during the third period at Honda Center. Mandatory Credit: Gary A. Vasquez-USA TODAY Sports
January 8, 2016; Anaheim, CA, USA; St. Louis Blues center Robby Fabbri (15) moves the puck against Anaheim Ducks defenseman Josh Manson (42) during the third period at Honda Center. Mandatory Credit: Gary A. Vasquez-USA TODAY Sports /
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 The St. Louis Blues will aim to tie their season-best win streak as they host the Anaheim Ducks on Friday evening.

The St. Louis Blues will host the Anaheim Ducks on Friday at Scottrade Center, wrapping up a brief two-game homestand in what will be the front end of a home-and-road back-to-back, as they’ll travel to play the Dallas Stars on Saturday evening. The Blues will be aiming to tie their season-best five-game winning streak, which was established from February 12-20 (perhaps non-coincidentally, those were the five games during which the Blues’ lineup was at its healthiest point this season). The fact that the Blues have been able to establish this current four-game winning streak without Alexander Steen and Brian Elliott (all four games), as well as Jori Lehtera and Ryan Reaves for the first game of the streak, makes it all the more impressive this time around.

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The Blues and Ducks last met on January 8, when St. Louis lost Jake Allen, Jay Bouwmeester, and Paul Stastny to injury, but still managed to take the Ducks to a shootout, largely thanks to great relief work in net from Brian Elliott, and picked up a point in the standings while losing 4-3. The Blues previously beat them 2-1 on October 29 at Scottrade Center, which would have been more impressive had the Ducks not come into that game having scored nine goals in their first nine games.

The Ducks have been much more successful as the season has gone on than they were in the early going. They now sit in second place in the Pacific Division, just one point behind the first-place Los Angeles Kings. For what it’s worth, though, the Ducks have lost their last two games, scoring just one goal over that span, so the Blues may be catching them at a good time.

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Unless Alexander Steen is way ahead of schedule and manages to return on Friday night, the Blues’ lineup figures to stay the same as it’s been for the past three games. Here’s how it will look:

Jaden SchwartzJori LehteraVladimir Tarasenko

Robby FabbriPaul StastnyTroy Brouwer

Patrik BerglundDavid BackesDmitrij Jaskin

Scottie UpshallKyle BrodziakRyan Reaves

Jay BouwmeesterAlex Pietrangelo

Carl GunnarssonKevin Shattenkirk

Joel EdmundsonColton Parayko

Jake Allen