Greg Wyshynski is a writer for Yahoo Sports.
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St. Louis Blues captain David Backes banged home a rebound in overtime to beat the Dallas Stars 4-3 in Game 2 and steal home ice advantage away from the Stars. After allowing the first goal of the game on an Alex Goligoski shot off a pass from Jamie Benn, St. Louis chased goalie Kari Lehtonen with the next three goals (Patrik Berglund, Joel Edmundson and Troy Brouwer).
Through two games, Dallas has had seven power plays, for a total of 12 minutes, 9 seconds, and has no goals and just eight shots on goal.
Dallas had the second best home record in the National Hockey League during the regular season at 28-11-2 and had won nine of its past 10 at the American Airlines Center before dropping Game 2.
After being attended to by a member of the Blues training staff, Elliott’s facemask was repaired, a contact that popped out was found and he remained in the game.
Capitals at Penguins, Game 3, 8 p.m. ET, NBCSN (series tied 1-1) – The series hailed as a clash of the titans has been less predictably dictated between the pipes through the first two games. That forced Dallas to get out of their box. “(Then) they’re playing with house money. The goal broke a 1-1 tie at 17:20 of the third period. Keep applying that pressure until he is shattered and Lehtonen more goals.
But the Blues couldn’t hold the lead, watching Chicago score and score and score again. “We recognize it and hopefully next time we get another chance to have something like that we do it a little bit different.”. It was almost flawless. Yet they failed to take that next step and the Blues succeeded.
It’s been a habit of this team for years now, and it nearly cost it here. But the second unit has chipped in as well with Tomas Hertl tying the game early in the third.
Both teams made changes to their roster in Game 2. St. Louis C Steve Ott, the former Star, was a scratch. Maybe it’s no surprise the Blues played with less urgency when he was stapled on the bench late. “There’s a real sense of pride on that and we’re going to need it moving forward”. Even though we were scoring, we were making a lot of puck errors at the start of the game. He was slow on the forecheck, soft in his battles and timid with possession.
Now, I think Niemi is the only call to start Game 3.
San Jose even killed a penalty for too many men in the ice shortly before Couture’s goal as Nashville fell to 2-for-31 on the power play this post-season. Here’s the updated bracket and when you can catch the next set of games. After all, the entire team was on its heels when it ran into the Blues buzzsaw early. “We had our power plays and didn’t do a good enough job”. Neither side could find the net though, with St. Louis out-shooting Dallas 10-6. So it shouldn’t have come as any surprise to the Predators that Ward delivered in the third period in his first postseason. The game became a bit of a back and forth, but St. Louis made the Stars pay for Dominic Roussel’s third penalty. Seconds later, Backes buried the victor.
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Even with the loss, the Stars have to be feeling good about their general play.
