As the Sharks and the St. Louis Blues trade wins in a series that’s tied 2-2 heading into Game 5 at the Scottrade Center on Monday, the teams’ coaches are also exchanging jabs through the press, heightening the intensity of an already hotly contested series.
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With the Sharks trailing 3-2, the Sharks scored their second power play goal of the game with 1:27 to go in the second period as Pavelski one-timed a pass to the front of the net by Thornton.
Joe Pavelski, who tied the game 3-3 late in the second period, scored the victor just 16 seconds into the third period.
Both have been major reasons the Blues are in their first conference final since 2001, Fabbri with 14 points and Backes with seven goals and 13 points. Two empty-netters and the Sharks head home with a 6-3 win, one win away from their first ever trip to the Stanley Cup Final. For the St. Louis Blues, their key to success may be having a roster that acts more like a carousel than a cement block. “It’s a tight series and it all starts from the beginning (when it’s tied)”.
“I think we’re reminding ourselves we’re not there yet”.
Not that it hasn’t already been done on multiple occasions throughout this postseason-including Saturday night, when fourth-line center Kyle Brodziak came out of nowhere to score two goals and spark the team to victory-but the Blues might need some unlikely contributors to step up on Monday.
“We work at it a little bit”, a humble Pavelski told NBC’s Brian Boucher after the game.
Pavelski leads the playoffs with 12 goals and has three two-goal games, one in each series.
So naturally, when Crosby then scored Pittsburgh’s game-winner in overtime – notching the fastest OT goal scored – the jabs at Roenick couldn’t come fast enough. “We’ve got to be better in all areas and I’m sure we will be”. The San Jose Sharks are averaging 2.9 goals per game and are scoring on 22.5 percent of their power plays. The Sharks won 6-3. I think this year we just realize its honestly another hockey game.
“Our expectations are high and we want to do well for the fans”, Hitchcock said after the Blues dropped to 4-6 at home this postseason.
Hitchcock kept quiet about other potential roster issues, saying he’d have updates on captain David Backes and rookie Robby Fabbri on game day.
DeBoer said he learned “all kinds of things” from Hitchcock, but couldn’t recall specifics. Allen made 31 saves on 34 shots, and the offense finally got the best of San Jose goalie Martin Jones with four goals. It’s something that we really need to take a hard look at and figure out why we’re doing that.
The Sharks have a 4-1 record in the playoffs this season in games that come after a loss. With it, they took a three-games-to-two series edge and are within one win from advancing to the Stanley Cup finals for the first time in franchise history.
“We’ve battled through a lot this season”, he said.
Jones had been shaky up to that point, too, the second straight game in which he hasn’t been at his best after getting pulled in Game 4, but the goalie did manage to make one huge blocker save on Patrik Berglund with less than five minutes to go.
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Not so much if you’re St. Louis, a team that took four games and a goalie switch to finally put together 60 minutes they’d been pretty proud of in Game 4.
