Blues take three-game win streak into break

~ St. Louis defeated San Jose 1-0 to complete a three-game West Coast sweep.

SAN JOSE, Calif. -- Manny Legace wasn't thinking shutout. That didn't stop him from blanking one of the NHL's best teams.

Legace saved 31 shots as the St. Louis Blues defeated the San Jose Sharks 1-0 on Saturday night. It was Legace's third shutout of the season and 16th of his career.

"I feel way better when we get a win then when I get a shutout," Legace said.

The Blues earned six points on their West Coast road trip and entered the all-star break on a three-game winning streak.

"We knew we had to come into San Jose and do a job," added Legace. "We wanted to go into the break on a winning streak and we are. We played a great game. This building is one of the hardest to play in. I'm really surprised that we held them scoreless."

Since St. Louis fired coach Mike Kitchen on Dec. 11, and hired Andy Murray, the team has come alive going 12-4-4 and moving back into the playoff hunt in the Western Conference.

"Any time you can come into California and sweep the teams here it's something special," said Murray. "The caliber of play on this coast is unbelievable."

Bill Guerin scored the game winner with just 1:24 left in the second period when he wrapped around the goal and flipped the puck past Sharks' goalie Evgeni Nabokov.

Guerin took his time making the shot.

"I just came around the net and tried to put it in there," he said. "Sometimes funny things happen and the puck went in."

Guerin was more impressed that his team was able to upset San Jose, which had a four-game winning streak snapped.

"It's hard to beat them," Guerin said. "They're young, fast and they control the puck almost better than any other team out there. You have to look out for a lot of guys."

"I'm disappointed about tonight," San Jose coach Ron Wilson said. "You want to go into the break with a win and we could have gotten within two points of Anaheim."

The loss left the Sharks four points behind the faltering Ducks for the lead in the Pacific Division.

St. Louis is now 21-5-2 at San Jose which surprised many of the Blues players.

"This a tough barn to play in," Keith Tkachuk said. "They're a tough hockey team. I don't know what it is. There's a lot of energy in this building. And when you have players like Joe Thornton and Patrick Marleau to defend against, winning here can be almost impossible."

Noteworthy

• Murray became the 12th active NHL coach to coach 500 games.
• After the break the Blues play 11 of their next 15 games at home.
• With the win, January became the Blues' first winning month of the season.