The Vancouver Canucks have had a successful road trip up to this point, and they’re hoping that it will end the same way it began: with a Jaroslav Halak victory.

Halak was brilliant in the Canucks’ 3-1 victory over the Colorado Avalanche last Wednesday. The Canucks then lost to the Minnesota Wild in overtime, and beat the Dallas Stars in regulation on Saturday in perhaps the most crucial game of their road trip.

All in all, it’s been a success for the Canucks up to this point, who remain in the playoff hunt against all odds as they close out their trip with a matchup tonight in St. Louis against the Blues.

Other than the switch in goal, the Canucks are sticking with the same lineup that we’ve seen recently.

Bruce Boudreau said a number of factors played into the decision to go with Halak tonight.

“Well he was great in Colorado,” said Boudreau. “When you play that good, you can’t just sit and say ‘okay, you’re not going to play for another month’. And with the travel — four in six, and you play the same team twice — we didn’t want them to see the same goalie twice. It made sense that Demko would play back to back with the day off because with no practice, he was the freshest one. And then Halak would get a skate in yesterday then work out and practice this morning. So him today and then Demko back in Vancouver.”

Luke Schenn recalled the last time he faced off against his brother Brayden, and revealed that he accidentally hit his brother’s injured ribs a bit too hard.

“He was hurt earlier this year, coming back from broken ribs,” said the elder Schenn brother. “He’s good now thankfully, but he was just coming back from broken ribs and we were playing in Vancouver. I was on the penalty kill and he was on the power play — and it was just a little quick shot in the side of the ribs like I do every other game, it just kind of got him in the spot that wasn’t quite healed yet… It’s good that he’s healed up now, but it’s one of those ones where, you know, maybe should have known better.”

The Canucks and Blues are two teams hungry for points, and will get a chance to face off against each other for the first of two games in a row tonight in St. Louis before returning to Vancouver for game two. Puck drop is at 4:30 PM from the Enterprise Center in Missouri.