The Blues are the only ones still feeling good, though, beating the Sharks at Scottrade Center 2-1 to take the early lead in the best-of-seven series.
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Lehtera’s goal came midway through the second period and along with the shut-down goaltending of Brian Elliott gave the Blues a 2-1 victory over the San Jose Sharks in Game 1 of their best-of-seven Stanley Cup playoff series. The Blues have been shorthanded 40 times in 14 games.
ST. LOUIS (AP) – Once again, Brian Elliott was the star of the show. His latest performance gave his St. Louis Blues teammates plenty of comfort knowing he had their back. “It’s been that way for the first two rounds and nothing has changed here in Game 1 of the third round”.
The Blues felt they had taken a 1-0 lead when a shot by Jay Bouwmeester hit Patrik Berglund in front and the puck wound up in the Sharks’ net.
“I just got the puck, then I close my eyes and shoot it”, Lehtera said. “I’ll make that save next time”.
Tomas Hertl scored the Sharks’ only goal with 4:22 left in the first period. Pavelski and Elliott were roommates at Wisconsin. I’m going to blame that one on the stick. No. “No, I have to find a way to put that in regardless of what goes on”.
Entering with a lethal power play that was operating at 31.0 percent in the playoffs, the Sharks went 0-for-3, including one third period advantage where coach Pete DeBoer used his timeout to keep his top unit on the ice for the duration.
DeBoer said Saturday he was happy with the way Wingels played after he sat out games 5 and 6 against the Predators. “If you’re asking if I passed to him, no, I didn’t”.
The Sharks are 4-11 all-time when losing the first game of a playoff series.
“They have a unsafe power play, so the key for is going to be not giving them the ability to play the power play”, Sharks forward Tommy Wingels said. Surely, the Blues defense is one of the reasons they are still alive. “We stepped up to the challenge'”. The Blues thought that they had an early goal, but it was waved off due to goaltender interference.
“The puck was spinning a lot and it probably just spun out”, Elliott said when asked about the play. “I haven’t even seen it yet, so I don’t know”.
For more NHL Playoffs coverage, check out our hub page. Backes and Jori Lehtera had goals for the club, and Lehtera’s turned out to be the game-winner after the team survived a frantic finish.
Blues forward Vladimir Tarasenko is tied for second in the National Hockey League with seven goals and knotted for third with 13 points. “There’s where he’s so valuable”.
Another shot besides Hertl’s actually did get behind Elliott.
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The Blues had just enough despite a third disallowed goal in the playoffs. The Sharks were unable to score with their goalie pulled and suffered a Game 1 defeat. Backes has scored six goals and six assists, and three of his goals have been game-winners. Joe Pavelski was tied for the postseason lead with nine goals after Round 2 and has 13 points.
