» SHARKS FALL TO BLUES IN ST. LOUIS

ST. LOUIS — The Blues played — no question about it — their best game of the season on Friday night, playing with more vim, vigor and energy and taking it to the San Jose Sharks in a 4-0 win that was everything that was expected of the team this season.

Ryan O’Reilly ran his point streak to nine games and Alex Pietrangelo, Jaden Schwartz and Alexander Steen also had goals, while Chad Johnson followed up stopping 38 of 39 shots against Carolina on Tuesday by stopping all 31 shots he faced for his eighth career shutout and first since Nov. 30, 2016. Johnson has stopped 56 consecutive shots.

The Blues had extended stretches where they dominated play, keeping the puck in San Jose’s end against a team playing its second game in as many nights. But there were many times the Blues were in similar situations last season and didn’t take it to the opposition. This time, against a San Jose team that played in Dallas last night, the Blues were aggressive and active and kept going all the way to the end.

The Blues took a 1-0 lead on a four-on-four goal by Alex Pietrangelo, parked in the slot, with 5:10 to go in the first, with an assist from Vladimir Tarasenko.

The Blues followed that with a power play which included two great chances for rookie Robert Thomas, playing in his 10th game, but he took big swings and made only partial contact on both of them. And then almost as soon as the penalty ended, Thomas was called for interference, giving San Jose a power play that covered the end of the first and the start of the second

O’Reilly was originally credited with an assist on the first goal to run his point streak to nine, but it was later taken away. He assured his point streak of going to nine games, however, 5:28 into the second period when he finished off a pass from Jaden Schwartz for his eighth goal of the season. Tarasenko started the play with some nice stickwork behind the San Jose goal, got the puck out front to Schwartz and he then made a short pass to O’Reilly to finish it off by standing by himself just to the left of the goal. In the streak, O’Reilly has eight goals and eight assists in the nine games.