By LOUIE KORAC
ST. LOUIS -- A battle of conference cellar dwellers takes place tonight at Scottrade Center between the Blues (tied for last in the West with Anaheim) and Tampa Bay Lightning (14th in the East).
The Lightning, after a 10-6-7 start to the season, came into St. Louis 1-8-2 in its last 11 games and losers of six in a row (0-5-1).
The Blues (14-13-5 overall and 6-10-2 on home ice -- which includes a 5-10-2 record here at Scottrade) will go with similar lines from games past.
The forward line combos will looks like this:
McDonald-Tkachuk-Boyes
Kariya-Backes-Oshie
Perron-McClement-Crombeen
Winchester-Steen-Janssen
The D-pairings will also remain the same:
Sydor-Johnson
Jackman-Polak
Colaiacovo-Weaver
Chris Mason will start in goal. He is 1-1 with a 3.53 GAA and a .865 save percentage in two career starts against the Lightning.
The Blues' healthy scratch is Patrik Berglund. Keith Tkachuk is back in the lineup after sitting out Wednesday at Chicago.
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The Lightning, which dropped a 3-0 game at Detroit Thursday, will go with this lineup:
Malone-Stamkos-St. Louis
Tanguay-Lecavalier-Halpern
Szczechura-Wright-Jones
Fedoruk-Konopka-Veilleux
With Victor Hedman, the No. 2 overall pick in the 2009 draft, back in the lineup tonight after missing one game, the D-pairings will include:
Ohlund-Meszaros
Hedman-Foster
Hale-Walker
Antero Niittymaki will backstop the Lightning in goal. He is 1-1 with a 3.01 GAA and a .909 save percentage in two career starts against the Blues.
Sorry, so tardy tonight! The Blues made a game-time decision as to who would be scratched.
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