PREVIEW: Red Wings ready to put best foot forward against red-hot Blues on Tuesday 

ST. LOUIS -- Hitting the road for a quick one-game trip, the Detroit Red Wings will take on the surging St. Louis Blues at Enterprise Center on Tuesday night.

Puck drop for the second and final matchup of the season between Detroit (34-33-6; 74 points) and St. Louis (40-28-7; 87 points) is set for 8 p.m. ET/7 p.m. CT, with television broadcast coverage simulcast on FanDuel Sports Network Detroit and Fox 2 in Detroit. Radio coverage on the Red Wings Radio Network can be heard on WWJ Newsradio 950.

In the first game of their season series with the Blues, the Red Wings were blanked, 4-0, at Little Caesars Arena on Dec. 23.

“They’re playing well,” Craig Smith said about St. Louis, which is riding a season-high nine-game winning streak. “They’ve won a lot of games recently, so it’s going to be a tough task. It always seems to be a heavy game going into [Enterprise Center]. They play hard and there’s a pretty good culture there because of [head coach] Jim Montgomery. We just need to worry about what we’re doing, take care of our business and put our best foot forward.”

Detroit is looking to build on a 2-1 win over the visiting Boston Bruins on Saturday. Marco Kasper and Lucas Raymond each lit the lamp, while goalie Cam Talbot made 20 saves to help the Red Wings keep pace in the tight race for the Eastern Conference’s second Wild-Card spot.

Going into Tuesday, Detroit was three points behind the Montreal Canadiens for that final Wild-Card berth.

“We've had two of our own win streaks here, and when you start winning, you feel good about each other and you feel good about the team,” Red Wings head coach Todd McLellan said. “Your confidence climbs a little bit.”

Captain Dylan Larkin said Detroit needs to carry over the intensity from Saturday’s game into what they expect to be a tough road environment come Tuesday night.

“Two fights early [against the Bruins] and we won a lot of foot races and puck battles,” Larkin said. “That’s all the stuff we need right now and when we’re playing well, you see us doing those things.”

Coming off a 2-1 road victory over the Colorado Avalanche on Saturday, St. Louis’ current hot stretch has propelled the club to just one point behind the Minnesota Wild for the Western Conference’s first Wild-Card spot.

Robert Thomas leads the Blues with 68 points (19 goals, 49 assists), while Jordan Kyrou (31-31—62) and Dylan Holloway (26-36—62) are the only other skaters on the team who have passed the 60-point threshold this season.

“[The Blues are] a confident team,” McLellan said. “I think they're very well structured in all three zones. They apply pressure when it needs to be applied and they’re checking…I think [captain Brayden Schenn] and [goalie Jordan Binnington] have been big parts of their team. They're driving the bus right now and everybody else is following.”

Binnington has received most of the workload in the crease for St. Louis this season, posting a 25-21-4 record with a 2.70 goals-against average, .901 save percentage and three shutouts.

“You’ve got to get traffic on him,” Larkin said about how to get the better of Binnington. “And again, it’s someone that's feeling really good right now. You got to make him feel uncomfortable, especially early. You can't let him find the feeling that he's had the last nine games.”