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ST. LOUIS -- The matchup between the Chicago Blackhawks and St. Louis Blues will be one of the highlights of the NHL season on Jan. 2, when the two teams meet outdoors in the Winter Classic at Busch Stadium.Coach Ken Hitchcock and the Blues have not even begun to think about that game, however. They have another game with the visiting Blackhawks first, coming up on Saturday night.Chicago comes into the game off a 5-4 win over the Islanders on Thursday night in New York, improving to 4-0-1 in its last five games. One of the keys to the win was a revived power play, which produced three goals. That was one more goal than the Blackhawks had scored on the power-play in their previous games this month.That power-play will be put to the test against St. Louis, which beat the New Jersey Devils 5-2 on Thursday night to improve its home record to 11-0-3 in the last 14 games.The Blues killed off two power play chances for the Devils, and have now killed off 19 of opponents last 20 chances with a man advantage. They own the second-best penalty kill percentage in the league.For the season, St. Louis allowed only five power-play goals in 62 chances in their 18 home games.Thats just one of the reasons behind the success at Scottrade Center, where Jake Allen -- expected to start in goal for the seventh consecutive game -- is 11-0-2 this season.Key to Thursday nights win, in addition to one goal and two assists from a red-hot Vladimir Tarasenko, was goals from three forwards who have been struggling to score this season.Jori Lehtera scored his fourth goal in 26 games, Patrik Berglund his second in 31 games (into an empty net) and Nail Yakupov his third in 19 games.Getting more contributions from those players would increase the Blues chances of continuing to play so well at home.It seems at home weve got some good chemistry going, said defenseman Alex Pietrangelo, who also scored against the Devils. We rotated pretty much everybody tonight, and everybody had good legs.Added Tarasenko, I feel like we feel more confident here. So now we have a job to do to -- figure out why our road record (4-9-1) is not really good. I feel pretty good about our team this year and we still have a lot of time. We believe in our work, we believe in our coaching staff and try to stay as close as we can together to try and win games like this.The Blackhawks will be without starting goalie Corey Crawford, who has been out since undergoing an appendectomy on Dec. 3. He skated on Thursday for the first time since the surgery but there is still no timetable for his return.Center Jonathan Toews did return to the lineup this week after a back injury forced him to miss nine games.Jay-Tee Tiuli Jersey . To the surprise of many, it isnt the Wolverines but their in-state rivals the Michigan State Spartans. D.J. Fluker Jersey . Halifax beat the Saint John Sea Dogs 7-5 on the strength of two goals apiece from Nikolaj Ehlers, Matt Murphy and Brent Andrews. Jonathan Drouin also scored and had three assists while Zachary Fucale made 17 saves for the Mooseheads (16-8-0), who led 6-1 after two periods. http://www.cheapseahawksjerseysauthentic.com/?tag=authentic-12th-fan-jersey . -- Quarterback Will Finch threw for 252 yards and three touchdowns, and Yannick Harou rushed in two scores as the No. John Ursua Jersey . Westbrook has missed 27 games since having a procedure on Dec. 27 to deal with swelling in his injured right knee — the third operation on the knee in nine months. Cassius Marsh Jersey . - After leading the Saints to a fourth playoff appearance in five seasons, Drew Brees expressed confidence in the direction of his team and, perhaps more importantly, showed a willingness to listen to contract proposals if the team needs his help getting under the NFLs salary cap.Louisville and Virginia are heading in opposite directions but have taken basically the same approach in their preparations heading into Saturdays matchup.The Cardinals (6-1, 4-1 Atlantic Coast Conference) lead the nation in scoring at 52.6 ppg and are led by sophomore quarterback and Heisman Trophy candidate Lamar Jackson. Every week, in assessing the Cardinals progress, coach Bobby Petrino said he begins with reminding himself what his team is doing well.My dads philosophy is still there, which says `do it until they stop it, Petrino said this week, so well continue to do that, but then we want to know situation-wise, you know, what were doing in certain situations.The review runs the gamut from how the Cardinals use motion, any tendencies they have picked up in play-calling that might put a defense in position to have success to what they need to change to remain unpredictable.Virginia (2-5, 1-2) has taken a similar us-first approach all season in Bronco Mendenhalls first year as coach.Changes in the Cavaliers game plan include a switch to the 3-4 defense. Though the Cavaliers spend time studying an opponents offensive weapons, their preparations mostly focus on their own development on both sides of the ball.Were so focused on just our own execution, which theres significant lapses in consistency right now, said Mendenhall, who calls the plays for Virginias struggling defense. I mean, my point simply to the team is we have plenty to work on just within our own organization, and so my intent is to keep their focus on us, on us, on us, knowing the external environment will be talking about Louisville and their quarterback.And theres plenty to talk about when discussing Jackson. Hes thrown for 18 touchdowns and run for 16 more, making him responsible for eight more touchdowns than Virginia has scored.---Some other things to watch when No. 5 Louisville plays at Virginia:STRUGGLLING BENKERT: Virginia quarterback Kurt Benkert had his first game without an interception is last weeks loss to North Carolina, and Mendenhall said he was more insecure in the pocket, escaping.dddddddddddd The coach added that teams have had seven games of film to watch on Benkert have made the quarterbacks preparation more important, and more challenging.RUN GAME: One of the best ways to keep a dynamic offense off the field is with a productive running game, but Louisville ranks 19th nationally in stopping the run, allowing just 116 yards per game. Over the last two games, Duke and North Carolina State have averaged just 62 yards on the ground against the Cardinals defense.TAKE THAT: The Cardinals have turned the ball over 18 times with nine interceptions and nine lost fumbles, and an underdog such as Virginia can make the game more competitive by generating takeaways and converting them into points. Virginia also needs to take care of the ball and the Cavaliers have committed just 11 turnovers.RANKED VISITORS: The Cavaliers last home victory against a ranked opponent came in 2014 -- against Louisville. Virginia beat the No. 21 Cardinals 23-21, but their record against teams ranked in the top 5 is less encouraging. Their last home victory against a team ranked in the top 5 was in 2005 when they edged No. 4 Florida State 26-21.OLD SALT RETURNS: Virginia will go back to its football heyday as it honors its winningest coach, George Welsh, on the 25th anniversary of his winning national coach of the year honors. Virginia was 134-86-3 under Welsh from 1982-2000, and made 12 bowl appearances. He was the ACCs career victories leader when he retired.---More AP college football: www.collegefootball.ap.org---Follow Hank on Twitter: www.twitter.com/hankkurzjrWholesale Football Jerseys Wholesale Basketball Jerseys Wholesale Baseball Jerseys ' ' '