San Jose Sharks 2, St. Louis Blues 4 FINAL

ST. LOUIS (AP) -- Scott Mellanby wasn't about to miss a game because of a shoulder injury.

Mellanby scored two goals, and Keith Tkachuk had three assists to help the Blues beat Sam Jose 4-2 on Thursday night for their sixth straight victory.

"I feel fine," Mellanby said. "I had some soreness. Getting it checked out was a real precautionary situation. Nothing is structurally wrong."

The Blues are 7-0-1 in their last eight games. St. Louis has won four of those games by one goal, including three wins in overtime.

"That's the way we want to play," said Chris Pronger, who scored a power-play goal. "We want to get the puck in deep, get on a forecheck and create some turnovers and play a tight defensive game. It's kind of cookie-cutter mentality but it seems to be effective for us.

"You get on rolls when bounces go your way. They play out in your favor no matter what happens out there. We want to continue to keep this rolling as long as we can."

This was just the sixth time this season the Blues (20-6-2-1) have won by at least two goals.

"We hear the things people say, that we're not scoring enough goals," Mellanby said. "Bottom line is we're one of the elite teams in the league."

In their previous meeting this season, the visiting Blues defeated San Jose 4-3 in overtime. St. Louis has won its last five games against the Sharks and is 9-2 in the last 11 meetings.

Blues coach Joel Quenneville has 298 victories in 561 games as the Blues' coach.

St. Louis outshot San Jose 16-8 in the first period but scored just once. The Blues scored at 7:07 when Mellanby put in a rebound of a shot by Pavol Demitra.

"He's got some nice hands around the net," Quenneville said about Mellanby. "Both of his goals came as a result of his quick hands. It's nice to see him get rewarded."

The play was started by Tkachuk with an outlet pass to Demitra. Tkachuk is on an eight-game point streak and he has at least one point in 14 of 15 games.

San Jose defenseman Tom Preissing said that line is a good one to defend.

"That's their superstars and you expect guys like that to play that way and we just need to do a better job of shutting them down," Preissing said.

The Sharks tied it at 1 with a power-play goal at 5:47 of the second period. Patrick Marleau tapped in a rebound past goalie Chris Osgood. St. Louis ranks first at home killing penalties, having fought off 60 of 65. In their last 14 games overall, the Blues have killed 57 of 62 penalties.

Two special-teams goals put St. Louis ahead 3-1 in the second period.

St. Louis regained the lead at 2-1 while on a four-on-three advantage at 12:45. Pronger blasted in a slap shot from the right circle. It was the fourth power-play goal allowed by San Jose in the past 55 short-handed situations.

The Blues made it 3-1 on a short-handed goal by Jamal Mayers, who scored at 17:26. Pronger intercepted a pass and fed Mayers, who skated in all alone and pushed the puck under a sliding Vesa Toskala.

"Those are the type of goals you like to see," Quenneville said.

Mellanby scored his second goal at 15:24 of the third period. Tkachuk's shot hit the boards behind the net and came back to Mellanby, who was standing to the left of the goal.

Alyn McCauley scored a power-play goal with 14.6 seconds remaining for the Sharks.

San Jose had seven power-play chances. Osgood turned back 27 of 29 shots.

"You expect St. Louis especially here to play physical and we didn't have any answers for that," San Jose coach Ron Wilson said. "It's that simple."