Tonight will feature a Game 7 in the NHL Playoffs.
Advertisement
St. Louis Blues’ Vladimir Tarasenko front, of Russian Federation, and Dallas Stars’ Mattias Janmark, of Sweden, battle for a loose puck during the second period of Game 6 of the NHL Western Conference semifinals, Monday, May 9, 2016, in St. Louis. No reason to say they’re wrong either given the fact the Blues nearly overcame a 3-0 deficit one game earlier and the Pittsburgh Penguins watched a 3-0 lead evaporate before winning in overtime the night prior to the Blues’ game.
The Blues, powered by three first-period goals, routed the Dallas Stars for a Game 7 win.
The St. Louis Blues got behind the eight ball early in a game six loss at home and couldn’t fully recover as they dropped a pivotal victory and now must find a way to win on the road in hostile territory to keep their Cup aspirations in tow. They will now play the victor of Thursday’s Game 7 between the San Jose Sharks and Nashville Predators. The Stars also lost 6-1 in Game 3 of this series. “It was my first crack at a Game 7 and hopefully there are going to be more opportunities like that to play at a high intensity level like this”.
St. Louis has been captivated by the Blues’ playoff run, but the club sure does like to test the city’s nerves. Even though the game was a blowout, he still made some huge saves when the game was close, including this toe save early in the second period when the Stars almost made it 3-1 with a lot of time to play. The Stars scratched D Jordie Benn, G Jack Campbell, C Jason Dickinson, C Justin Dowling, LW Curtis McKenzie, D Julius Honka, LW Travis Moen (arm), D Patrik Nemeth, D Jamie Oleksiak, LW Brendan Ranford, RW Brett Ritchie and C Tyler Seguin (lower body). The Dallas forward went 33-40-73 in the regular season, but has played just once in these playoffs, creating a void for the Stars.
Credit where due – Kari Lehtonen was spectacular in Game 6. “There are a lot of different things a star player does even when he’s not scoring”.
The Blues matched the Stars speed in the first few shifts and Brian Elliott made a couple of nice saves and the turning point came pretty early in that opening period when the ice tilted in the Blues’ favor.
The home side finally had a reason to cheer at 05:15 when Patrick Eaves slammed home a rebound to cut the deficit to four.
The Blues looked as though they had gone up 2-0 in the 18th minute when Tarasenko spun and fired from a bad angle and the puck went in off Lehtonen’s equipment. Tarasenko is tied for third in the National Hockey League with six goals and knotted for fourth with 12 points this postseason. Robby Fabbri scored the 1st goal of the game for the Blues in the 1st.
Are you ready for Game 7? The Blues are returning to starter Brian Elliott after he was pulled in favor of Jake Allen in Game 6.
Advertisement
The Dallas Stars made a decision to pull Kari Lehtonen from the game and he stopped 5 shots. Lehtonen is 9-6 with a 2.58 GAA and a.908 save percentage in the 2015-16 playoffs.
