ST. LOUIS, Mo. — The defending Stanley Cup champions get one more chance to finish their annual State Fair road swing on a winning note. The Carolina Hurricanes face the Blues on Saturday at Enterprise Center, with the puck dropping at 7 p.m. Eastern.
Carolina is 8-2-2 and leads the Metropolitan Division with 18 points. The trip has gone 2-1-1 so far, and the Canes are 6-1-1 away from home overall, so a win would give them seven road victories, their second-best total through nine road games in franchise history. Most of the Cup-winning roster returned, though goalie Frederik Andersen left for Edmonton in free agency and defenseman Alexander Nikishin has not played while unsigned after asking for a trade.
Thursday in Edmonton turned into a shootout loss, 6-5, despite nine different Canes reaching the scoresheet. Seth Jarvis scored in his first game since the Stanley Cup Final, and Juuso Valimaki got his first NHL goal in nearly two years. With Brandon Bussi in net that night, Pyotr Kochetkov is the likely starter Saturday. He is 6-0 with a 1.98 goals-against average, and only Frederik Andersen, in 2021-22, had previously opened a Carolina season by winning six straight starts.
St. Louis enters at 5-4-1 and riding a two-game win streak after a 6-2 rout of Vegas on Thursday, when defenseman Barron, a September waiver claim, had a goal and three assists. The Blues lean on special teams, ranking eighth in the league on the power play at 25% and fifth on the penalty kill, and they have scored with the extra man in five straight games. Mason McTavish and Dylan Holloway share the team lead with 10 points, and Joel Hofer has started seven of 10 games with a 2.17 goals-against average.
The Blues won both meetings last season by a combined 6-1. After Saturday, Carolina plays four of its next six at home in Raleigh before a trip to Finland for a pair of Global Series games with Seattle.
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