Blues Loss...

CHICAGO (AP) -After being badly outplayed and shut down in back-to-back losses, the Chicago Blackhawks turned the tables.

Nikolai Khabibulin made 16 saves, and Jonathan Toews, Samuel Pahlsson and Colin Fraser scored for the Blackhawks, who beat St. Louis 3-1 on Wednesday night and snapped the Blues' five-game winning streak.

The Blackhawks were in control throughout and moved within one point of clinching their first playoff berth since 2001-02 and their second in 11 seasons. Chicago also jumped one point ahead of Calgary and into fourth place in the Western Conference.

Khabibulin lost a bid for his second shutout when St. Louis' Jeff Woywitka scored a power-play goal with 1.5 seconds remaining. The Blackhawks, who lost 4-0 to Vancouver and 4-1 to Montreal in their previous two games, dominated and limited the Blues to their second-lowest shot output this season.

"St. Louis has checked hard against us all year," Toews said. "We went out there and took it to them

"That we dictated most of the game was good. We kept them away from our net and made our goaltender's job just a little bit easier, for once."

Chicago finished 2-2-2 against St. Louis this season and will play Friday at home against Nashville. If the Blues don't win at Detroit on Thursday, the Blackhawks will lock up a postseason spot.

"I wasn't aware of that," Chicago coach Joel Quenneville said. "We want to get fourth in the conference. That's the motivation for us.

"We had a good effort. A good start. We checked well, had support around the puck. We had the puck a lot and won some battles."

Well guess I will be taking my trip down to missouri bull shoals lake.