Skip navigation
Favorites
Sign up to follow your favorites on all your devices.
Sign up

NHL on NBC: Blues, Red Wings renew Central Division rivalry

BluesWings

The Detroit Red Wings and St. Louis Blues will head into Sunday’s game (12:30 p.m. ET, NBC) as the seventh- and eighth-place teams in the Western Conference.

As if they needed anther reason to make the battle heated.

These two long-time rivals will renew acquaintances and fight for postseason positioning at Joe Louis Arena in their fifth and final meeting of the year -- and, if the previous four matchups have taught us anything, it’s to expect the unexpected.

It will also be the last time the two teams will meet as division rivals thanks to realignment - at least in the regular season.

The Blues won the opening meeting of the season in dominant fashion, bombing the Wings 6-0.

In Game No. 2, Detroit gained a measure of revenge by winning 5-3 on the strength of a Henrik Zetterberg hat-trick.

The third game saw the Wings make full amends for the 6-0 blowout, as they crushed the Blues 5-1.

And, in the most recent game (Feb. 13), the Blues beat the Wings 4-3 in overtime, rallying from an early 2-0 deficit to win it on Alex Steen’s OT winner.

As for current form, Detroit comes into Sunday’s game on a roll, having won two of their last three. That includes Friday’s wild 3-2 overtime win over Colorado, in which Pavel Datsyuk scored the game-winner with 15 seconds remaining -- giving the Wings a win despite being out-shot 35-31.

The Blues, meanwhile, have won three straight, including a crucial 3-1 victory over Columbus on Friday. Captain David Backes scored the game winner, and rookie netminder Jake Allen stopped 26 of 27 shots as the Blues held off the hard-charging Blue Jackets, who now sit tied for ninth in the West.

As mentioned above, the game will be on NBC at 12:30 p.m. ET, and also available for live streaming at NBCSports.com.