“We had about five or six minutes of the second period where we didn’t play well and it cost us two goals”.
Advertisement
“I’ve actually been very pleased with the quantity or quality chances we’ve had in this series, knowing that traditionally against (the Blues), it’s usually a lower-chance affair”, coach Joel Quenneville said. “Wow, that’s pretty good”.
The Blues had been there before, in this building in fact.
“They clearly have Chicago’s attention”.
“Yeah, I was trying to lift the guy’s stick there and got it up”, Kane said. Craig Smith scored the tiebreaking goal midway through the second period before Shea Weber added the eventual game-winner 9 ½ minutes later to highlight the Predators’ 3-2 win over the Pacific Division champs.
The Blues got a massive win on the road on Sunday and have stolen back home ice advantage from the Blackhawks in what was one of their best and most resilient efforts of the season but will face a stiff backlash in this one as the Hawks try to even the score.
Petr Mrazek got the shutout after replacing Jimmy Howard, who surrendered seven goals in the first two games of the series. “That’s been our forte as far as playing defense”, Hitchcock said.
“This feels very much like a Final and it’s the first round”. The Blues took advantage of the powerplays for the win, with both teams having to withstand an incredibly physical game – with the Blues giving out 40 hits, against the Hawks 36. Patrik Berglund opened the third period scoring 5:15 into the final period evening the score 2-2. “Man, they were dancing”, St. Louis’ substance overcame the Chicago Blackhawks’ flash Sunday in this beauty of a series.
Blackhawks goalie Corey Crawford said this year’s Blues “are different” after the Blues beat the Blackhawks 3-2 in Game 3 of the Western Conference Quarterfinals. Specifically, the Blues had a second-period goal called back following a successful challenge from Chicago regarding an offside call.
As the third period got underway, the Blues slowly began to push back again, and they eventually struck paydirt.
The Blackhawks had a chance to build on their lead, but a shot by Andrew Ladd clanked both posts with 6:19 left in the period.
It was that mentality that had the Blues confident in the second intermission. They were on the hunt all the time. “If we’re going to get the bounce, we’ll wait as long as we have to, I guess”, Blackhawks captain Jonathan Toews said. First, it was Kyle Brodziak in the box, and then Jay Bouwmeester took consecutive penalties, with the second in the sequence the result of a boneheaded decision to play the puck before leaving the penalty box.
Robby Fabbri knocked down a Chicago dump-in, allowing Kevin Shattenkirk to feed it ahead to Berglund.
The separation between these teams continues to be razor thin as each of the last five games have been decided by one goal, four of them St. Louis wins. They don’t care what’s gone on in the past. “After that, we just kept going”.
The Blues got solid goaltending from Brian Elliott. It wouldn’t be fair to the rest of the team to say he single-handedly won the game, but he has been the Blues’ best player for the entire series. “Vladi did a nice job of faking the shot and Dave put it in my wheelhouse”.
But Elliott was not fazed, and put together one of his strongest games of the season amid a firestorm of Blackhawk shots.
– Tarasenko recorded one assist and had seven shots on goal tying a postseason career high. “Bergy kind of flying up the center of the ice and taking that shot with a insane bounce. (Then) a tough break too on the penalty – four minutes where they just got all the momentum in the world out there on that power play”. Later in the period, Patrick Kane took a double minor penalty for high sticking Alex Petriangelo, and the Blues cashed in on the PP to give them the 3-2 lead.
Advertisement
NOTES: Florida lost its previous two overtime playoff games, dropping Games 6 and 7 of the first round to New Jersey in 2012, the latter in two extra periods…. His performance is one of the main reasons the Hawks find themselves down in the series.
