D'Agostini lifts Blues to victory

SUNRISE, Fla. -- The St. Louis Blues think they have what it takes to make a run at the playoffs in the second half of the season.

Matt D'Agostini scored the tiebreaking goal with 4 minutes left and St. Louis beat the Florida Panthers 2-1 on Tuesday night.

David Backes also scored, and Jaroslav Halak made 30 saves for the Blues, who snapped a four-game road losing streak.

"This is the type of performance we needed coming off a bit of a layoff," Blues coach Davis Payne said. "We're healthy and ready to go."

Dennis Wideman scored for Florida and Tomas Vokoun stopped 26 shots.

On the winning goal, Florida turned the puck over at the blue line, giving St. Louis a 3-on-1 as it came down the ice. D'Agostini's wrister went high into the net to make it 2-1.

"We've been working hard but just not getting the outcome we wanted," D'Agostini said. "We keep working and getting pucks deep and eventually that's going to take a toll on their defense. I think we played a pretty solid game all around."

The Blues tied it at 1-1 with a minute left in the second.

The Panthers turned the puck over at their own blue line and Brad Boyes grabbed it and passed to Andy McDonald along the side boards. McDonald brought the puck through the left circle toward the net, then passed it to Backes in front, who easily beat Vokoun with a wrist shot for his 18th goal of the season.

Backes scored for the fourth time in seven games.

The Blues had lost 11 of 14 coming in.

"We finally put together a full 60 minutes and got rewarded for it," Backes said. "It took us a while but our goalie is good enough to keep us in games when we haven't been up to snuff."

Florida took a 1-0 lead on a 5-on-3 power play in the first. Steven Weiss fed the puck to Wideman above the left circle and his one-timer beat Halak at 6:45.