“I want to know what they did with the money their parents gave them for voice lessons”, Backes said with a smile.
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The Stars would control overtime, but a careless penalty by Antoine Roussel set up a power play goal by David Backes halfway through the extra frame.
The best-of-7 series is tied 1-1.
Game 3 is Tuesday night in Nashville.
Troy Brouwer’s cross-ice, below the goal line feed to Joel Edmundson made it 2-1 Blues just under three minutes later.
Antti Niemi had stopped 19 consecutive shots since relieving Kari Lehtonen after the first period until Backes scored.
“The first 40 minutes we were spinning our wheels a little bit”, coach Peter DeBoer said. “But it’s natural; you play the score. We’ve got to put our work boots on and get to work”. It’s been like that ever since I started coaching. “We learned we have to stay on our toes”.
Faksa scored with 4 minutes 44 seconds remaining of the final period to seal a 2-1 win in the best-of-seven series opener.
A breakaway goal by Mattias Janmark 4 1/2 minutes into the third period pulled the Stars to within 3-2, and then Jamie Benn scored on a loose puck to tie the score with 2:36 left in regulation.
But with the Blues backing off in the third, the Stars got two. They came out and did what they needed to do to win the game. “It’s unfortunate. We took a couple of penalties and they capitalized”.
The good thing is that though the Blues played poorly, Dallas didn’t make them pay for it as much as they could have.
Video: STL@DAL, Gm2: Ja. The Stars hosted a Game 1 in the second round for the first time since 2003, the last time they were a No. 1 seed….
Both goalies were strong in Game 1, especially Brian Elliott, who kept the Blues in the game with his athleticism and a few old-school saves. “We were chasing from behind too much”. “His play has been infectious for our team”. Played 45 National Hockey League games.
Mission accomplished…sort of The Blues made it clear what they wanted to do differently in the wake of their Game 1 loss: get pucks deep, hustle in on the forecheck and lay a beating on Dallas’s defense. He one-timed a slap shot from the left circle that beat Elliott inside the far post. He was great in Game 1 against St. Louis, stopping 31 of 32 shots. “We’re not going to beat anybody giving up 40 shots on goal”, groused a grumpy Blues coach Ken Hitchcock, “and we’re not going to beat anybody giving up the scoring chances we did today”.
“Take the officials out of the equation”, Ruff said. “I just felt something go in there [into my eye]”.
“I’m not going to let anybody know who’s in and who’s out”, he said. They were outshot again as well, 17-11, in the middle frame which means they’ve been outshot 129-91 in the second period alone in 8 playoff games.
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“Well, I think it was big, especially playing at home”, Lehtonen said.
