If the first Game 7 of his pro career was his big National Hockey League litmus test, the 32-year-old seemed ready for it.
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The Blues have made things hard on themselves once again, but they enter this Game 7 with some confidence.
The win saw St Louis move into their first conference final since 2001, where they suffered a 4-1 series defeat against eventual champions the Colorado Avalanche.
It definitely wasn’t Lehtonen’s night Wednesday.
With the only two-day break between games the Predators have had in the playoffs, they spent Tuesday resting.
Patrick Eaves scored the lone goal for Dallas, breaking the shutout early in the third period. Hitchcock said Elliott earned the right to start and showed he’d moved on from his rough outing. “Mainly came expecting to see a game and we just had a goalie implosion, so it was pretty disgusting”, Jack Price said. “It’s going to be a little different now that we’re on the road, but I think overall, we know what the pressure is, we know what it’s going to be”. Once he did, it was apparent that the Game 6 issues were an aberration. But losing Game 7 in the second round on home ice still stings. What he anxious about was the physical toll of this series and the previous seven-game series.
The Blues dominated the rest of the game outshooting the stars 28 to 7.
To a man, including backup goalie Jake Allen, the Blues expressed devout belief in Elliott following the defeat on Monday.
“If you happen to pull the plug, you pull the plug just to try to change the direction”, he said. The Blues will play their 16th Game 7 and are 7-8 in franchise history. “I think there’s maybe a point-five percent of guys that aren’t nervous, and they’re all in the Hall of Fame”. He was ready to bounce back. “I wanted to talk to him and make sure he was feeling good about himself”. Even after their win over Chicago in the first round, the Blues don’t have a ton of Game 7 experience. That came mere moments after the Blues thought they had already taken a 2-0 lead on a Vladimir Tarasenko goal which was correctly called offside on a coache’s challenge. Just 43 seconds later, Stastny scored despite a severe shooting angle. Antti Niemi took over in the second period, when Backes and Brouwer scored, but stopped the other eight shots he faced. The damage was done. But Ruff was in no mood to assess blame, rightly noting that the Stars failed to take advantage of several offensive opportunities.
Stars coach Lindy Ruff is looking to feel good after a Game 7 for the first time in his career as he is 0-3 in these contests leading into Wednesday night’s clash. “But right now, it’s just tough”.
In fairness, Dallas wouldn’t have made it to Game 7 if Lehtonen hadn’t turned his game around, if only briefly.
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The remainder of the period was a close fought affair with both sides creating chances, the best of which fell to Valeri Nichuskin who somehow managed to miss an open net from point blank, at the conclusion of a slick Stars passing play.
