by Craig Phelps

Staff Writer

St. Louis, Mo – Jaroslav Halak and Matt D’Agostini were sent state side during a trade between the St. Louis Blues (31-28-9) and the Montreal Canadiens (37-24-7) this past year.  There was a lot of debate on whether the Canadiens should have kept Jaroslav Halak or if they made the right choice in saving Carey Price.  While Thursday night may or may not give the Habs their answer, the Blues are certainly happy with the result and their 4-1 victory at the Scottrade Center.

The sellout cloud of 19,500 got to see quite the show with some great goaltending and even better scoring.  It looked like Price was in the zone as the evening events started off, leaving Blues fans astonished at the young goalie’s skill and athleticism in net.  Not to be out done by his former teammate, Halak decided to put on his own show.

“Obviously when you play for some team and you get traded, you want to beat them every time you play them,” said a smiling Halak after his victory.

The Blues goaltender looked like he was in early season form, stopping nearly everything came his way from his former team.  Halak stopped all but one of the 28 shots that headed his way; Jeff Halpern was the only member of the Canadiens to score on him.

Matt D’Agostini couldn’t let Halak have all the glory against their former team.  He put the Blues third goal into the back of the net off of a mid-air saucer pass from Andy McDonald.

“It was a great play by him, a terrible pass by me,” joked McDonald, who had a goal and two assist on the night.

As if the 4-1 win against their friends from north of the border wasn’t enough, Halak and D’Agostini also received the three star honors for the night.  D’Agostini was the third star while Halak was the first star; McDonald was the games second star.

The Blues advance to 30-28-9 on the night and end the evening at 71 points.  The Blues stay home to take on the Detroit Red Wings on Saturday at 7:00pm.