The St. Louis Blues maintained their mastery over the hometown Toronto Maple Leafs at the Air Canada Centre on Tuesday night.

Keith Tkachuk scored twice and David Backes had one goal and one assist as the Blues beat the Maple Leafs 3-2. 

Hal Gill is checked by D.J. King in Tuesday's 3-2 Maple Leafs loss.
(Adrian Wyld/Canadian Press)

Manny Legace turned aside 23 of 25 shots for his first win in seven starts.

"I was still doubting myself when I came to the rink tonight," he said. "But we got lucky tonight."

The Blues (23-19-7) halted a seven-game losing skid (0-5-2) and improved to 5-0-1 at the ACC, which they hadn't visited since Dec. 9, 2003.

"We were able to establish our forecheck early and make it tough on them," Blues head coach Andy Murray said.
 
Jason Blake and Matt Stajan scored for the Maple Leafs (20-24-8), winners in four of their previous six games.

Darcy Tucker had two assists in support of Vesa Toskala, who faced 19 shots — the fewest allowed by Toronto this season.

"When you put yourself behind the eight-ball, like we did early in the first period, you're asking for trouble," Tucker said.

Tkachuk strikes twice

Tkachuk tipped Bryce Salvadore's point shot past a screened Toskala to open the scoring 78 seconds into the contest.

Tkachuk made it 2-0 at 5:41, racing to the net and redirecting Jay McKee's centring pass for his second goal on the night and 15th of the season. 

"Before the game, I talked about getting off to a better start," Murray said.

Blake trimmed the deficit with 7:43 left in the first period, taking a pass from Tucker in the slot and waiting patiently for Legace to make the first move before flipping in his 10th.

But Backes spied a loose puck between Toskala's pads and poked it into the net for his seventh at 10:55 of the second period.

When Tucker's slapshot went wide of the net, Blake retrieved the puck and fed Stajan, who scored his 12th with 4:49 remaining in the period.

"We did a good job battling back," Tucker said. "But it is a tough position to put yourself in."

With files from the Canadian Press