{allcanada} Blues defeat Flames to clinch playoff berth

ESPN Fantasy Baseball / Yahoo Fantasy Baseball

ST. LOUIS -- The St. Louis Blues got key contributions from members of their new top line of Jaden Schwartz, Paul Stastny and T.J. Oshie and clinched a Stanley Cup Playoff berth with a 4-1 win against the Calgary Flames at Scottrade Center on Thursday.

Schwartz and Stastny each scored a goal, and Oshie had an assist.

Stastny, Patrik Berglund and Jori Lehtera each had a goal and an assist.

The Blues (47-23-7) became the third team in the Western Conference to clinch a playoff berth, joining the Nashville Predators and Anaheim Ducks. With 101 points, the Blues trail the Predators by two points for first place in the Central Division; St. Louis has a game in hand on Nashville.

Jake Allen made 17 saves for his 20th win. He and Brian Elliott (24) joined the New York Rangers' Cam Talbot (20) and Henrik Lundqvist (27) as the only tandems in which each goalie has 20 or more victories.

The Blues played the game without leading scorer Vladimir Tarasenko and Alexander Steen. Each is day-to-day with a lower-body injury.

The Flames (42-29-7), who got a goal from Sean Monahan and 39 saves from Jonas Hiller, remain in third place in the Pacific Division. They entered Thursday with a three-point lead on the Los Angeles Kings, who are hosting the Edmonton Oilers.

Calgary lost its sixth straight game in St. Louis, dating to April 1, 2011. The Blues are 9-1-1 against the Flames in the past 11, and they've outscored Calgary 17-2 in the past four. The Blues swept the three-game season series; it's their first sweep against the Flames since 2002-03, when they went 4-0-0.

The Blues had gone 206:56 without a goal in the first period before Schwartz, who scored the last one March 10 against the Winnipeg Jets, came out of the corner with the puck after Oshie won a board battle with Flames defenseman TJ Brodie and flipped a backhand past Hiller 1:16 into the game for a 1-0 lead.

The Blues, who began the second period with 2:48 of power-play time after Brandon Bollig's major for boarding Barret Jackman late in the first period, made it 2-0 on Stastny's 50th point in 43 games against the Flames.

David Backes patiently waited out a sliding Mikael Backlund before sending a pass to Stastny in front. Stastny redirected the puck through Hiller from in tight 24 seconds into the period.

Monahan's 30th of the season cut the Blues lead to 2-1. He redirected Jiri Hudler's centering feed into the high slot, beating Allen high over the left shoulder 3:35 into the second.

Monahan is the first Calgary player to score 30 goals since Jarome Iginla in 2011-12.

Allen preserved the Blues' 2-1 lead with two key saves. He stopped former Blues defenseman Dennis Wideman from the slot, then denied Hudler from the side of the goal on the rebound while St. Louis was killing a penalty.

Hiller was able to keep it a 2-1 game with a save on Backes' shorthanded breakaway with 9:21 remaining.

Lehtera restored the Blues' two-goal lead after taking a wraparound pass from Berglund and beating Hiller with a backhand with 3:15 remaining to make it 3-1. Berglund scored an empty-net goal with 2:05 remaining to make it 4-1.

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