Tarasenko made no mistake, putting the puck under Lehtonen easily to give the Blues a 1-0 lead 10:17 into the game. Go for more, more, more.
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After enduring a blowout loss to the St. Louis Blues in Game 3 of their Western Conference semifinal series, the Dallas Stars knew exactly how they needed to respond Thursday in Game 4. Captain David Backes and Alex Steen potted two goals apiece, while Vladimir Tarasenko busted out of a mini-funk with a tally and two helpers.
Alex Goligosky opened up the scoring with his third goal of the playoffs for the Stars, while Mattias Janmark (1) and Jamie Benn (5) each scored in the third period to erase a 3-1 deficit and force overtime. I think they had a little bit of a lull (in that game) and they’re going to come firing back with everything they’ve got.
After getting embarrassed in game three falling 6-1 to the St. Louis Blues, the Dallas Stars had no choice but to win in Thursday night’s game four match-up. Despite a late start – more than 1 1/2 hours past the usual puck drop – the vast majority of a standing-room crowd of 19,323 stuck around to the finish. You can’t say they weren’t trying. Ritchie was the only one in the group that didn’t receive a “minus” on the play on the plus-minus statistics.
“He’s one of the most complete players in the league”, coach Ken Hitchcock said.
“We think of it as one game”, Backes added. That switch didn’t last long, and it didn’t matter.
St. Louis had the rare 4-on-3 advantage midway through the second period.
“It was who was going to bend the furthest. When we do that we’re right where we need to be”. “Losing confidence in our goalies is not an issue”. There were points where the Blues could have pulled away in Game 4, but they were unable to do so. Neither team would score again until overtime when Cody Eakin flipped a short-side wrist shot top shelf on Elliott less than three minutes in. Paul Stastny had his first of the postseason off a deflection from Tarasenko. They can also lean on a strong penalty-kill, which has allowed two goals in nine chances in this series, and just three in 34 overall in this postseason.
Islanders defenceman Ryan Pulock, who’s been out with an upper-body injury, will practice on Thursday and could play in his fifth playoff game on Friday.
“It’s kind of a new experience for us, this playoffs”, Tarasenko said.
Emotions ran high last game and the Stars will come out firing tonight, but they have to find a way to improve their powerplay without Tyler Seguin if they want to win.
“In today’s salary-cap world, you have to develop (players) in the farm system”, said Texas Stars coach Derek Laxdal. Rookie Radek Faksa had the other goal.
For the Stars, they must try to prove the same by winning in St. Louis to regain home advantage and definitely swing the momentum back to their favor. A video review overturned the would-be goal by Jason Demers, which hit the crossbar and never went in the net.
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“We’ve been going with Lehtonen, so we’re going to stay with him”, Ruff said Tuesday morning via NHL.com before changing his tune.
