Alexander Steen #20 of the St. Louis Blues shoots the puck against the Dallas Stars in Game Four of the Western Conference Second Round during the 2016 NHL Stanley Cup Playoffs at the Scottrade Center on May 5, 2016 in St. Louis, Missouri.
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Faksa, who had the deciding goal in the Stars’ Game 1 victory, tied it on an unassisted goal off a giveaway by fellow rookie Joel Edmundson.
Despite outshooting the Stars, the Blues rarely troubled Lehtonen for long as they have in other games.
Lehtonen came on in relief on Niemi in Game 3 and was extremely sharp in Game 4, turning away 24 of 26 shots.
St. Louis’ Vladimir Tarasenko scored first on a breakaway goal halfway through the opening period.
The Stars’ power-play goal by Sharp ended the Blues’ ideal performance on the penalty kill, breaking a 0-12 slump and narrowing a large special-teams gap the Blues enjoyed.
Sharp said he heard Stars defenseman John Klingberg calling for the puck behind him as he raced up ice for the eventual game-winning goal, and he moved to the middle to open space for Klingberg on his right.
Paul Stastny tied the game at 2 in the 2nd period for the Blues.
Now, after Eakin’s top-shelf beauty won Game 4 just 2:58 into extra time, the Stars are back in the catbird seat, as they used to say in these parts. He beat Brian Elliott on a 3-on-2 break after the Blues pressured goalie Kari Lehtonen on the opposite end.
Game 5 is Saturday in Dallas. The St. Louis Blues did just about everything they could with the exception of putting the puck into their own net to make sure the Stars could take advantage though.
“We’re all tied up here and we’ve got to put this one behind us like we put the other ones behind us”, Blues captain David Backes said after the Game 3 defeat.
And Eakin is no stranger to goal scoring.
Val Nichushkin actually looked better as the game went on, too.
ST. LOUIS – The Dallas Stars are back off the mat.
“We’ve got to go home and try to win a game”.
“Yeah, those things happen”, Elliott said. The Stars need to find a way to play like they did tonight for the remainder of the series if they are looking to win. The Blues made no changes in their lineup from Game 3 while the Stars inserted RW Brett Ritchie and RW Valeri Nichushkin into their lineup.
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“I think it mattered big time in the Chicago series, especially in that Game 7”. There isn’t much difference between two squads that play two different styles, and so the victor will likely be determined by the team that stays on task the best. Faksa appeared to have gotten tunnel vision as he picked up the pass and didn’t see his clear lane to the net, but man oh man, I began to wonder if that was going to be the “what could have been” moment when the game eventually headed to overtime. They got the power play going a little bit and got timely saves from their goalie.
