“And if he didn’t get it up, then I could turn around, find the rebound and one of those fortuitous bounces right on my tape and slam it home before anyone can realize where it is”.
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Antti Niemi entered at the start of the second period in Sunday’s Game 2 loss to the Blues, stopping 19 of 20 shots.
Backes joined Pierre Turgeon (1999) as the only Blues players with two overtime goals in the same postseason, having scored the OT victor in the opener of the Blues’ first-round series against Chicago.
Of course, if the Sens want Dineen, they’ll have to pry him out of Chicago – and, according to the Tribune, Quenneville said he expected his coaching staff to return next season.
Whether it was by direction of the coach (most likely) or simply from the players (unlikely but possible), the Blues dumped it in and went for a change nearly every single time they crossed the redline.
Alas, it didn’t come to pass. The Blues prevailed and will host three of the next four games on their ice if the series extends that far. An uneventful second period gave way to a third stanza where captain Jamie Benn continued to establish his bona fides as a burgeoning playoff force.
The third period. I’m not one of those that hammers Ken Hitchcock left and right. St. Louis though is a very solid team and clearly have the edge when it comes to defense and goaltending in this series and if they can show that once again in game three I think they should be able to skate away with a win.
Troy Brouwer had a power-play goal and an assist to help the Blues take a 3-1 lead in the first period. “We moved it too slow and some of our entries, we were just off. Sometimes we made some poor decisions”.
That the Blues might come out with a burr under the collective saddle was no surprise after their tepid Game 1 offering. “When we get to it, it’s more of a grind, skating with pucks in their zone, forechecking well, not allowing that fast transition game to start”. Janmark was attempting to score his first playoff goal, but Elliott denied him a second time in the game with a glove save.
But it was Faksa, the big 22-year-old Czech centre whom the Stars drafted 13th overall in 2012, who finished off the winning goal, after Ales Hemsky drove the net and Elliott couldn’t control the rebound. Dallas has one of the best power plays in the league and with their high-scoring offense, giving them any extra chances is asking for trouble.
“It’s whether we go and let Kari bounce back”, Ruff said. San Jose won the most road games in the National Hockey League this season and all three in Los Angeles in the first round.
They held on to take a 1-0 lead into the second intermission but found themselves level at 1-1 after Tomas Hertl scored for the Sharks 2:37 into the third.
Game 3 is Tuesday night in Nashville.
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The top-seeded Dallas Stars have cleaned up their act after that frantic finish in the first round. Elliott was terrific, even made one save on Jason Demers at the end of a flurry while so out of position, he was facing into his own net with his back to the shooter.
