Blues  1    Red Wings  0

St. Louis Blues (12-11-5) at Detroit Red Wings (14-10-5), 7:30 p.m.

Sports Network | December 9, 2009

(Sports Network) - Two longtime division rivals renew acquaintances this evening at Detroit's Joe Louis Arena, where the defending Western Conference champion Red Wings shoot for a win over the St. Louis Blues.

It's been a rough first two months of the 2009-10 season for the usually- mighty Red Wings, who currently find themselves saddled in third place in the Central Division with 33 points. The team has been playing well as of late, however, having compiled a 3-1-1 record over its last five games following Sunday's 3-1 road triumph over the New York Rangers.

Detroit's Dan Cleary snapped a 1-1 deadlock when he fired an odd-angle shot past the Rangers' Henrik Lundqvist with 2:03 remaining in the third period. Kris Draper later put the contest out of reach with an empty-net goal in the closing seconds.

Nicklas Lidstrom and Henrik Zetterberg each finished with two assists in the victory, while goaltender Jimmy Howard led a strong defensive effort by making 28 saves.

"The guys did a real great job in taking sticks away in front and blocking some key shots there," said Howard afterward. "We did a good job of keeping them to the outside."

St. Louis, which ended a string of three consecutive seasons without making the playoffs in 2008-09, is buried at the bottom of the Central standings with a disappointing 29 points but has also shown signs of a breakout recently. The Blues began December with road wins at San Jose and Los Angeles -- the top two clubs in the Pacific Division -- before their offense was stymied by Colorado's Peter Budaj on Monday.

The Avalanche netminder turned aside all 35 shots he faced in his team's 4-0 decision at the Scottrade Center, which dropped St. Louis to a poor 4-9-2 at its home venue this season.

The game was scoreless until Colorado's Chris Stewart scored the first of his two goals on the evening, a power-play re-direction past Blues backstop Chris Mason that occurred with just 11 seconds remaining in the opening period.

"[The Avalanche] started fast and we came back and matched that pace of play after the first five minutes, but then we gave up that goal near the end of the first period," said Blues head coach Andy Murray.

Mason allowed all four Colorado goals on only 22 shots.

The Blues hope that a return to the road will help them bounce back from Monday's frustrating defeat. St. Louis has amassed a solid 7-2-3 mark as the visitor this season, with wins in four of its last five outings in enemy arenas.

In addition, the Blues bested the Red Wings twice in a pair of season-opening games held in Stockholm, Sweden. Detroit was able to get a measure of revenge, though, with a 4-3 shootout win in St. Louis on November 28.

The Blues have been dealt defeats in 14 of their past 21 trips to the Motor City, but prevailed in each of their two most recent appearances in Joe Louis Arena.