Blues, Lightning battle for No. 1 spot in the League

ST. LOUIS - The top team in the Western Conference will face off against the top team in the Eastern Conference tonight when the Blues host the Tampa Bay Lightning at Scottrade Center.
Both teams have 44 points. By the end of the night, one of them will have sole possession of the No. 1 spot in the League.
The puck drops at 7 p.m. and a limited number of tickets are still available at the Scottrade Center Box Office and
online at ticketmaster.com
. The first 12,000 fans will receive a Blues hoodie courtesy of FOX Sports Midwest.
Fans without tickets to the game can follow the action live on NBC Sports Network, the NBC Sports App and KMOX 1120 AM.

BLUES Brayden Schenn and Jake Allen were named the NHL's First and Second Star of the Week after helping their club to a perfect 4-0 record in last week's action. Schenn scored six goals and one assist in four games, while Allen went 4-0-0 with a 1.50 goals-against average, a .944 save-percentage and one shutout.
The Blues earned a 3-2 overtime win against the Buffalo Sabres in their last outing thanks to an overtime game-winner from Vladimir Tarasenko, the eighth of his career, which is the most of any player in Blues history.
On Satuday, the Blues lost Jaden Schwartz and Alex Pietrangelo to injuries. Schwartz is expected to miss six weeks. Pietrangelo was placed on injured reserve on Tuesday morning. In addition, Jay Bouwmeester will miss Tuesday's game with what Blues Head Coach Mike Yeo called a "nagging" injury. Yeo said Bouwmeester isn't expected to be out long term.

LIGHTNING The Tampa Bay Lightning are coming off a 4-3 overtime win against the Winnipeg Jets on Saturday. Yanni Gourde, Mikhail Sergachev, Nikita Kucherov and Brayden Point scored for the Lightning, who overcame a 3-2 deficit in the third period to secure their fourth consecutive win to sweep their four-game homestand.
"I think we showed the depth of our team tonight," Gourde told NHL.com. "Every line can score and every line was effective during this homestand. If we keep going that way, we're going to win more games than we lose."
The Lightning boast the top two scoring leaders in the League in Steven Stamkos (42 points) and Nikita Kucherov (41 points). Goalie Andrei Vasilevskiy leads the League in wins (19), while Allen ranks second with 17.
THE MATCHUP The Blues had won six straight games against the Lightning before dropping their last two contests. Tampa Bay won the first meeting between the clubs earlier this season, winning 2-1 back on Oct. 14 at Tampa Bay. The Blues are 15-3-0 against the Lightning all-time at Scottrade Center, which includes an active five-game win streak. Both the Blues and the Lightning share fourth in the League with a 2.52 goals-against average.
"It's a team that has the ability to score, but more than that, they're hungry to score," Yeo said of the Lightning. "They're dangerous off the rush, they're dangerous in the offensive zone, they can score by making plays and finding seams and creating movement but they can also score at the net. Great challenge for us to see how we defend against that tonight."

HOT VS. TAMPA BAY

• Vladimir Tarasenko has nine points in nine career games against the Lightning (seven goals, two assists).
  -Paul Stastny has five points over his last six games against Tampa Bay (two goals, three assists).
  -Alexander Steen has 12 points in his last 10 matchups with the Lightning (two goals, 10 assists).
  - Schenn has eight points in his last eight games against the Bolts (four goals, four assists).
  - Jake Allen is 2-0-0 with a .923 save-percentage, a 2.00 goals-against average and one shutout in 2 career starts against the Lightning at Scottrade Center.

BLUE NOTES

• The Blues have scored first in 18 games this season and have a 15-2-1 record in that scenario.
  - Colton Parayko has 12 points (two goals, 10 assists) in his last 13 games and played 27 minutes, 32 seconds on Sunday in Pietrangelo's absence.
  - Joel Edmundson has 12 points (six goals, six assists) in 31 games this season, just three points shy of tying his career high of 15, which he set in 69 games last season.
  - Patrik Berglund's next point will be the 300th of his NHL career.