Blues look to stretch home streak to 10 vs. Flyers

The St. Louis Blues will try to extend their home winning streak to 10 games when they host the Philadelphia Flyers on Wednesday.

The Blues are 17-4-3 at Enterprise Center this season heading into the finale of their five-game homestand.

"I thought that last year, we struggled at home at times," Blues coach Craig Berube recently told reporters. "I really don't have the right answer for it. Different scenarios, different times. But I think we're more consistent for sure this year. And we're doing a better job of sticking with what works."

Last year the Blues were 17-15-2 at home on March 12 before winning their last seven regular-season games in St. Louis.

"At times last year, we were too cute at home, maybe, I don't know, trying to impress the fans," Berube said. "But I don't find we're doing that this year. We're just playing our game, the same as we do when we're on the road."

Overall the Western Conference-leading Blues are 12-2-1 in their last 15 games.

"We're finding different ways to win -- and each night different lines, different guys are chipping in, whether it's offensively or defensively," said winger Jaden Schwartz, who has seven goals and nine assists in his last 13 games. "Both goalies are kicking. Doing the little things right, playing well as a team."

The Flyers are 9-13-2 on the road this season. Overall they are 2-4-1 in their last seven games, but they are coming off a wild 6-5 shootout victory over the Boston Bruins on Monday night.

They rallied from a three-goal deficit to force overtime.

"It's a big positive for us," Flyers forward Travis Konecny told reporters. "We went through a little stretch where we were struggling, so to come back against a team like this, it puts us right up there. We know we can win against these teams."

This game caps a rugged four-game stretch that sent the Flyers against some of the NHL's best teams: the Washington Capitals, Tampa Bay Lighting and Bruins before the Blues.

"You knew they were going to be three tough games, we had to take those games one at a time, which we did," Flyers coach Alain Vigneault said. "I liked our game in all three of them, they were all different. The Washington game, coming back home and having to play that night, that was out of the ordinary. Tampa was a tight-checking game from both teams and they got a bounce on their (winning) goal. Tonight it was just a little bit more wide open.

"They're three different games where I think everybody enjoyed it and now we've got to go to St. Louis and find a way to win that road game."

This is the first meeting between the teams this season. Last season the Blues beat the Flyers 3-0 in Philadelphia -- in goaltender Jordan Binnington's first victory, which spawned "Gloria" as the team's theme song -- and 7-3 at home.

Binnington figures to be back in goal after watching backup Jake Allen beat the Anaheim Ducks 4-1 Monday night. Binnington is 15-3-3 at home this season with a 2.11 goals-against average and .926 save percentage.

In five starts this month, No. 1 Flyers goaltender Carter Hart has a 3.73 GAA and an .879 save percentage. He left Tuesday's practice early with an undisclosed injury.

--Field Level Media