The St Louis Blues won their fifth straight game with a 4-1 victory on Saturday, March 22 over their archrivals Chicago, but the day still belonged to a Blackhawk.
Just before the game, Blackhawk forward and Oakville native Pat Maroon announced his retirement at the end of the season. His family was on hand as the Blues paid tribute to one of the heroes of the 2019 Stanley Cup champion squad with a video, as well as awarding him the first star of the game. Maroon’s only season with St Louis was that glorious 2018-19 season, which saw him play in 100 games between the regular season and playoffs. He netted 13 goals, including the series-clinching goal in double-overtime of Game Seven of the Western Conference semifinals against the Dallas Stars, when Maroon slipped the puck into goal past another St Louis native, Ben Bishop. Maroon would hoist the Stanley Cup again in 2020 and 2021 with Tampa Bay, and came close doing so in 2022 to put him in even rarer company.
As for Saturday’s game itself, it was all Blues, as Robert Thomas and Alexey Toropchenko scored in the second period to break the scoreless deadlock. The Blackhawks pulled one back with a short-handed, unassisted goal from Ilya Mikheyev, but the Blues maintained the pressure, adding to the scoreline with goals in the third from Nathan Walker and Zack Bolduc. The Blackhawks out-shot the Blues 27-25, with Joel Hofer recording 26 saves. The Blues maintained control with nine takeaways to the Blackhawks’ two, along with winning 57 percent of the faceoffs.
St Louis swept the season series with Chicago, outscoring the Blackhawks 16-8 in three games. In the process, they also eliminated the Blackhawks from postseason contention. The Blues’ fifth straight win has them two points ahead of Calgary for the second wild card spot, with Calgary still holding two games in hand. Vancouver is now three points behind with a game in hand, following their loss Saturday to the Rangers. The Blues will look to make it six in a row when they visit Nashville on Sunday afternoon at 5 p.m.