St. Louis Blues fans cheer in the final seconds of the third period in Game 1 of the NHL hockey Stanley Cup Western Conference finals, Sunday, May 15, 2016, in St. Louis.
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After reviewing all available replays and consulting with NHL Hockey Operations staff, the Referee confirmed that St. Louis’ Patrik Berglund made incidental contact with San Jose goaltender Martin Jones before the puck crossed the goal line, preventing Jones from doing his job in the crease.
After a feeling out process between the two teams in the first period, which ended with the score tied 1-1, the Sharks played the type of game they wanted in the second period. That’s a tough pill to swallow, but coach Peter DeBoer didn’t want to hang any blame on Jones because the team never picked him up with another goal.
“Need to make them pay a price for being the most penalized team on the power play, which we didn’t last night”.
“St. Louis is one of the most-penalized teams in the league, regular season and playoffs”, DeBoer said.
Lehtera’s goal with 10 minutes and 45 seconds left in the second period turned out to be the game-winner.
DeBoer felt his team s depth has been a factor in its success so far and knows it ll be important against the Blues.
We’ve said it and countless others have too, but if the Blues play their game for a full 60 minutes they’re going to win more often than not. “We’ll play the game, we’ll play it the right way, we’ll play it honest, but we’ll play it hard, let the refs decide”.
The Blues scored the “extra one”, the game-winning goal, midway through a second period that the Sharks completely owned.
In case you are wondering, Joe Thornton is cool with any random person tugging on his thick beard this time of year.
Asked about it Monday, Thornton said, “It’s all good for me”. I think it’s whoever can take advantage of the other team’s guys across from them. The Blues game is more about the grind than about beauty.
“We were just seeing whose was real”, Backes said of the incident, cracking wise. “Now we know how they play”.
The Sharks weren’t disappointed in their effort, just the bottom line. They jumped out to 2-0 leads over both the Los Angeles Kings and the Nashville Predators, but now they’ll be taking a different approach in their attempt to advance to the Stanley Cup finals.
The game had a 17.4 rating in St. Louis, the highest rated Blues game on the networks of NBC in the St. Louis market.
Among those he baffled was skipper Joe Pavelski, who had seven shots and had maybe the most obvious opportunity in the third period on a one-clock close to the halfway stamp. “I didn’t think I was an inch away from scoring”. Its not only in games, we see him do it every day in practice..
Elliott and the Blues caught a break later in the period when the whistle blew despite Elliott not able to cover the puck. He improved to 4-0 with a 1.29 goals-against average and.
The Blues had a Red Wing-like run of playoff appearances, amassing 24 straight playoff appearances from 1979-80 to 2003-04, missing the playoffs the first three seasons after the 2004-05 lockout that cost the league the entire season.
“Whenever it seems like he’s down and out and we may give up what we call a bad scoring chance, he has a knack for really just working to get back and getting a piece of it”, defenseman Kevin Shattenkirk said.
Do you think the players hear that stuff and alter their game? The Blues captain finished the night with 11 hits which is the most ever in a single game in the history of the franchise.
The Blues, though, got the goal back on the power play. They did that with numbers in the neutral zone and kept passing lanes clogged. “It was a big topic for us all week”.
“Kind of a weird play”, Burns said.
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“It was a winnable game”.
