ST. LOUIS -- St. Louis goalie Jaroslav Halak is healthy once again. The Phoenix Coyotes found that out the hard way Tuesday night. Halak made 20 saves and T.J. Oshie scored twice as the Blues rode their hot goalie to a 2-1 win. The Blues have won eight of nine and improved to 7-1-1 against the Coyotes since the start of the 2011-2012 season. Phoenix lost its season-high fourth consecutive game. Halak improved to 19-6-3 with his second successive win since missing five games due to an illness. The mysterious ailment, diagnosed as a severe flu, sapped his strength and forced him to the sidelines from Dec. 29 to Jan. 7. "I had a fever that wouldnt go away and I kept getting tired real fast," Halak said. "Now that the virus is gone, Im feeling pretty good." Halak made several impressive stops in the third period to protect a 2-1 lead. He robbed David Moss from close range with a stick save two minutes into the period. He also thwarted Antoine Vermette and Tim Kennedy down the stretch. "This is a game where the goalie saved us," St. Louis coach Ken Hitchcock said. "He was terrific from start to finish." Phoenix outshot St. Louis 8-2 in the third period and dominated play. "I thought we pushed hard," Phoenix coach Dave Tippett said. "We gave ourselves a chance to get some points." But Halak would not budge. "Youve got to give them credit, they came out really hard in the third," Halak said. "Im glad we got the two points, but we all know we can play better." Halak made 33 saves in a 5-0 shutout in Calgary on Thursday. He says he was not 100 per cent in that game, but believes he is very close to returning to top form. He felt Tuesdays performance was one of his best this season. His teammates agreed. "He made some huge saves," Oshie said. "This game could have gone the other way, a 5-2 victory (for Phoenix). He came up big and. thats what we expect from him every night." "Hes a huge reason we won," captain David Backes added. "He got us the two points. We need to play better in front of him. Hopefully, the other 19 of us learned a lesson." Oshie recorded his second two-goal game in the last six contests since he was named to the U.S. Olympic team. Oliver Ekman-Larsson scored for Phoenix, which has been outscored 16-6 during the four-game skid. Oshie, who has 10 goals, ripped a shot behind Mike Smith midway through the first period off a back pass from Alex Pietrangelo. Oshie scored on the power play in the second period. Jaden Schwartz provided a screen on Oshies shot from just inside the blue line. Ekman-Larsson scored a power play goal on a high wrist shot with 48 seconds left in the second period. The Blues had killed their previous 21 penalties. Phoenix RW Radim Vrbata hit the crossbar with 4:16 remaining the game. The Coyotes fell to 3-8-4 in their last 15 games. Ekman-Larsson said his team should be able to gain some momentum from a strong third-period effort that simply fell short against a hot goalie. "I think this is a step in the right direction," he said. "This was our best period in a long time." Smith fell to 15-13-8. He has not won since Dec. 21 covering nine appearances. St. Louis, which has won its last five home games, has a plus-61 goal differential, the best in the NHL. Notes: St. Louis D Roman Polak returned after missing 10 games with a fractured ankle. ... Phoenix C Mike Ribeiro left Mondays contest against Winnipeg with a lower body injury but returned on Tuesday. ...The Coyotes remain the only team in the NHL without a short-handed goal this season. ... St. Louis public address announcer Tom Calhoun worked his 1,200 consecutive home game. ... Blues LW Vladimir Sobotka, who has seven goals and 24 points, missed the game with a fever. ...St. Louis C Patrik Berglund played in his 400th NHL game. ....Phoenix RW Shane Doan is two assists shy of 500. Cory Spangenberg Jersey . 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Celski on Saturday at the world short track speed skating championship.CHARLOTTE, N.C. -- After watching Jeffery Taylor lead Charlotte to its latest win, Bobcats coach Steve Clifford was full of praise for his young star. Taylor matched a career high with 20 points, leading six teammates in double figures, and Charlotte beat the Philadelphia 76ers 105-88 on Friday night. "Hes a talented guy," Clifford said of the 24-year-old Taylor. "Hes at that age where guys make the biggest jump. Certainly he has the size, athleticism and intelligence to get his game to the next level. And hes a hard worker." Subbing for injured starter Michael Kidd-Gilchrist at small forward, Taylor mixed mid-range jumpers with athletic drives and cuts to the basket to scored nine of Charlottes first 22 points. "I was just trying to take the opportunities as they came to me," said Taylor, a second-round draft pick in his second NBA season. "A lot of the same shots I made tonight havent been going in for me lately. I just tried to stay aggressive and take what the defence gave to me." Gerald Henderson and Kemba Walker added 18 apiece, and Walker also had a season-high 10 assists. Al Jefferson had 14 points and 12 rebounds, Ramon Sessions added 13 points and rookie Cody Zeller chipped in with 10. Philadelphia was led by Tony Wrotens 21 points. Evan Turner added 16, Hollis Thompson scored 12 and Spencer Hawes had 10 points and 13 rebounds. The Sixers played without starting point guard Michael Carter-Williams, who came in averaging 17.7 points. The rookie sat out because of a sore right knee. Taylor impressed even Philadelphia coach Brett Brown. "Hes a good player," Brown said. "You look at his length and you look at his toughness and thats a rare combination. ... He had perssonal pride in attacking us.dddddddddddd" In addition to playing without Kidd-Gilchrist, out four to six weeks after breaking his left hand during a loss at Dallas last Tuesday, the Bobcats lost backup centre Bismack Biyombo to a right ankle sprain in the first half. In a matchup of defensive-minded teams, the opening quarter was an up-and-down affair that ended with the Bobcats leading 36-33 after shooting 56 per cent from the field (14 of 25). They never trailed again, eventually leading by as many as 18 points in the fourth quarter while shooting 46 per cent for the game. The Bobcats have held opponents under 100 points for 13 consecutive games, most in the NBA. The Sixers cooled off after hitting seven of their first 12 shots, but Charlotte shot 54 per cent (25 of 46) in the first half. The Bobcats took a 62-51 halftime lead on Jeffersons tip-in of a missed layup by Walker at the second-quarter buzzer. "I feel like the whole first half was not very good for us defensively," Brown said of the Sixers. Wroten added: "Weve got to start the game off better defensively. We played better on defence in the second half, but weve just got to play defence like that for the whole 48 minutes." Jefferson scored the first two baskets of the third to give the Bobcats the first of what would be multiple 15-point leads in the quarter. The lead swelled to as much as 18 in the fourth as the Bobcats continued running and scoring almost at will in transition, evidenced by the 22-10 edge they held in fast-break points for the game. The 105 points represented a season high for the Bobcats, only the second time they surpassed the 100-point mark. The only other time came in a 102-97 win at New York on Nov. 5. ' ' '