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Blues host Maple Leafs hoping for rebound effort

Jan 17, 2015 - 3:38 PM (SportsNetwork.com) - The St. Louis Blues will try to rebound from only their second loss of 2015 when they host the struggling Toronto Maple Leafs in Saturday's tilt at Scottrade Center.

The Blues own a 5-1-1 record in January, but they had a five-game winning streak halted in Thursday's overtime setback against visiting Detroit. The 3-2 loss dropped St. Louis to 3-0-1 on a seven-game homestand that won't end until after next week's All-Star break.

St. Louis currently sits tied for second in the Central Division with Chicago and is four points ahead of fourth-place Winnipeg.

The Blues rallied to earn a point on Thursday, as they trailed the Red Wings 2-0 after 40 minutes before sending the game to OT with two goals in the third period. David Backes cut the deficit to 2-1 with a power-play goal at 3:58 of the third and Alex Steen registered the equalizer with just 48 second remaining in regulation.

Detroit, however, would earn the extra point thanks to Pavel Datsyuk's marker with 2.2 seconds left in the extra session. The Red Wings star forward fired away from the inner arc of the left circle and his rising shot caught the crook between Brian Elliott's arm and body, then squeezed through and rippled the net inside the near post.

Elliott ended up making 21 stops for the Blues, who had a home winning streak halted at four games.

"I thought they had too much offensive zone time," Steen said. "It felt like Detroit was a step quicker than us tonight and it cost us the game."

Elliott will get the call in net for the Blues. He is 4-5-1 with a 3.06 goals against average in 11 career starts against the Maple Leafs.

St. Louis boasts a 16-4-2 record as the host this season and is 4-1-2 in its last seven home games against Toronto. The Blues are 5-0-2 in the past seven overall meetings with the Leafs, who have lost six of seven to begin January.

Toronto is 0-3 on a four-game road trip that ends tonight and the Leafs so far have managed just one goal on the swing.

After getting shutout 2-0 and 4-0 in Los Angeles and Anaheim on Monday and Wednesday, respectively, the Maple Leafs lost 3-1 Thursday night in San Jose.

The Sharks jumped out to a 2-0 lead before Toronto ended its scoring drought thanks to Roman Polak's goal with 8:03 left in the first period. However, neither team scored again until San Jose sealed the victory with an empty- netter in the final minute of regulation.

James Reimer absorbed the loss for Toronto despite stopping 39-of-41 shots.

"Reims played a great game," Leafs defenseman Cody Franson said of his goaltender. "It's unfortunate when a goalie plays that well, gets a tough loss. We feel for him and we feel it as a group."

The setback dropped Toronto to 1-4-0 since interim coach Peter Horachek replaced Randy Carlyle. The Leafs were in playoff position at the time of Carlyle's firing, but are currently seven points out of a postseason berth in the Eastern Conference.

Toronto played without forward David Booth, who was sidelined with a broken nose suffered when he was elbowed by Anaheim's Sami Vatanen on Wednesday. Fellow Maple Leafs forward Leo Komarov sat out a second straight game on Thursday with an upper-body injury. Both players are questionable for tonight.

The Leafs, who will host Carolina on Monday, are expected to go with Jonathan Bernier in net tonight. Bernier is 2-3-0 with a 3.18 GAA in six lifetime appearance against St. Louis.