“It was a bit of an ugly game”, he began, which fits nicely considering the source. “In the game before, Moose (Brian Elliott) made a couple big saves before we started taking a lead”.
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Ironically, the Blues have a better road record in the playoffs (3-2) than they do at home (3-3).
That quote about sums up what you could aptly describe as an Oreo cookie of a second-round series. Emotions were high toward the end of Game 3 and there could be a carry-over effect after St. Louis forward Ryan Reaves blew a kiss to the Dallas bench following a fight with Curtis McKenzie.
Now, after Eakin’s top-shelf beauty won Game 4 just 2:58 into extra time, the Stars are back in the catbird seat, as they used to say in these parts.
“It’s the best time of the players’ lives, it’s the most focused time and it’s the most emotional time”.
St. Louis can take a big-time lead in the series against Dallas on Thursday night.
The Blues had a chance to come out and pretty much bury the Dallas Stars in game 4 on Thursday night. I said in earlier games we played well. “I think if he would have been healthy, he would have had a real shot at the Selke (Trophy)”.
“Once we got by the first 15 minutes, we had everybody aboard”.
“We’re all tied up here and we’ve got to put this one behind us like we put the other ones”, said David Backes, who took the tripping penalty. The Blues weren’t able to build on that lead though, and Dallas was able to climb back into the contest due to two glaring errors by St. Louis. Only this time, it was Kari Lehtonen replacing Antti Niemi.
“We’re not going to beat them at their game”, observed Blues coach Ken Hitchcock, “and they’re probably going to struggle at our game”.
ST. LOUIS – Coming off a blowout, which has been rare in these Stanley Cup playoffs, the Dallas Stars and St. Louis Blues square off in Game 4 at 8 p.m. on Thursday in St. Louis.
The Stars survived several odd-man rushes before and after Tarasenko’s goal and ended the period trailing, 1-0.
Game 6 of the Stars/Sharks series in 2008 actually began on May 4th, but you know what happened: In the fourth overtime, well after the 5th of May had arrived, with 129 minutes of hockey in the books, Brenden Morrow scored the Stars’ last playoff overtime goal in franchise history.
“All you have to do is sit in the coach’s office and go watch the Islanders play Tampa”.
It was a different Stars player, defenceman Stephen Johns, who had planted Pietrangelo headfirst into the boards, but never mind.
One major element that played out during games was the physical nature of both teams.
After that, the two teams traded scoring chances in a fairly tightly checked game that seemed to get more physical as it progressed.
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We’re set up to be resilient and believe in our system. “We were confident, we were comfortable, we were excited about the opportunity we could win a game and go back to Dallas”. “I got healthy down there (with Texas) and I gained a lot of confidence being down there, being one of the big role guys, so it was good”.
