Livescore
CHICAGO — It was already going to be a storybook take for St. Louis Blues defenseman Cam Fowler.
Fowler, playing in his 1,000th NHL game and first to do so in an outdoor game, would have the memory of this being his 1,000th game, but there was more. He wanted more, and got it.
Fowler scored twice, including the ice-breaking power play goal to open things up as the headliner of a 6-2 Blues win against the Chicago Blackhawks at the Discover NHL Winter Classic at Wrigley Field on Tuesday.
One more goal would have put Fowler in company all by himself as the lone player ever to score a hat trick in his 1,000th game, but the 33-year-old will have to settle for two and a much-needed victory.
“It’s pretty surreal,” Fowler said. “Obviously going through a lot of emotions the last few weeks, getting adjusted to a new team. But I couldn’t have asked for anything more for this experience, getting to share it with my family. All these guys and how they’ve made me feel so welcome and helped me with my transitions. It was an awesome night for all of us, but more special because we got a win. That kind of seals everything else.”
Fowler’s fairy tale starting his career with the Blues continues to write itself after they acquired the defenseman from the Anaheim Ducks, who respected Fowler so much after 991 games with them that the players there all wore 1,000 t-shirts for their game against the New Jersey Devils.
“Yeah, ‘Panger’ told me in the locker room there,” Fowler said of former Blues color analyst and current TNT broadcaster Darren Pang. “Those guys are unbelievable guys. I’ve made a lot of great friendships there, which makes moving on that much more difficult sometimes. I’m super-thankful to those guys for even thinking of me, honoring me. It’s been a few weeks here, however long it’s been. It goes both ways. I have great friendships there in Anaheim and building great friendships here with this team. But it was very cool for me to hear that they honored me in that way and I was happy to hear that.”
Fowler is becoming such an important player in this room already, that Blues players can’t say enough good things about him.
He opened the scoring 1:40 into the game with a high slot power-play goal off a feed from Pavel Buchnevich to make it 1-0:
And with the Blues comfortably ahead in the second period, his seeing-eye wrister from the left point at the blue line made it 5-1 and put the final nail in the coffin of the Blues’ third Winter Classic win in as many games:
It’s hard to script this any better.
“No I don’t think you can,” Blues coach Jim Montgomery said, “but it is amazing. Ever since he’s been here, he just has a very positive outlook and I think it’s rubbing off on others, and I think the confidence he has in his ability to make plays I think has also helped the maturity of our team and obviously he’s producing at a high level for us right now.”
“Everything lines up,” Blues defenseman Colton Parayko said if his partner. “It was unreal. Just a guy that’s came and worked extremely hard, been a huge part of our team. We’re happy to have him in a Bluenote. It’s exciting to have him over here. He’s a great player, but just so happy for him. Two goals, 1,000th game outdoors at Wrigley. After a win, it’s pretty special.”
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