It might have been difficult to imagine goaltender Manny Legace enjoying as much success with the rebuilding Blues this season as he had experienced playing for the Detroit Red Wings over the last seven years. Yet, Legace has been playing remarkably well for a Blues team that has gone 13-4-2 since Dec. 19. Legace has posted a 12-3-2 record, a superb 2.05 goals-against average, a .928 save percentage and three shutouts in that span of games. In Legace's 12 wins, the Blues have been outshot nine times, as they were in all three of the goaltender's shutouts. The third shutout in this stretch was a 1-0 masterpiece against the Sharks in San Jose on Jan. 20. Legace stopped 31 shots while his teammates registered just 13, but Bill Guerin gave him the one goal he needed. In the Blues' next contest on Jan. 26, Legace saved 28 of 29 shots in a 2-1 victory over his former team.

The Blues had won seven of eight games -- beating the Devils, Ducks, Sharks and Red Wings -- before losing to both Nashville and Minnesota at home in the last week. The Blues had been outshot in all but one of those seven wins, but somehow they had managed more shots on goal than their opponent in the losses to the Predators and Wild. Chris Sanford was between the pipes against Nashville, but Legace absorbed his first loss in more than two weeks facing Minnesota on Tuesday. Legace allowed four goals in a 5-2 defeat. The veteran netminder has given up as many as four goals in a game only four times in his last 24 starts. The bad news is, three of those four games with four or more goals allowed have come in his last six appearances.

Is Legace's magical run coming to an end? Or is he simply cooling off a bit in the course of a long season, during which he may face more shots than he has in any other campaign with Detroit? The Blues hope he's the man to lead them back into the Stanley Cup playoffs after missing out on the postseason for the first time in decades a year ago.