If you had only watched the first period of the Dallas Stars and St. Louis Blues game five matchup on Saturday, you probably would have been convinced that the Stars would grab their third win and be one win from closing out the series.
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But instead of cracking under the pressure, the Stars responded. However later in the period Paul Stasny scored off a good deflection on a shot from Tarasenko to tie the game at 2.
The Stars created plenty of chances at even strength as well, but they couldn’t get one past Elliott. They came out in overtime and got a couple shots off, but they forgot the strong part in all aspects. I was surprised that Coach Hitchcock didn’t ask the referees over for an explanation as to why they didn’t think that was considered covering the puck in the crease which would have resulted in a penalty shot.
“I just had a little bit of room and found a little hole”, Eakin said.
Neither the Dallas Stars nor the St. Louis Blues believed this would be an easy series. “Obviously it would have been nice going in there up 3-1 but we’re in the situation that we’re in and we’ll get ready for Saturday”.
But his team played better in front of him this time. When we do that, we’re right where we need to be.
“I think it mattered big time in the Chicago series, especially in that Game 7”. “Then we let them off the mat with those two quick goals. It’s two good teams who refuse to go away”.
The Blues had a chance to come out and pretty much bury the Dallas Stars in game 4 on Thursday night. Lehtonen denied the Blues a chance at one end, and the Stars countered the other way. The Blues, up 3-2 in a second-round series with the Central Division champion Stars, have an opportunity to eliminate the opposition and advance to the Conference Finals for the first time in 15 years.
Mike Fisher scored at 11:12 of the third overtime, and the Nashville Predators beat the San Jose Sharks, 4-3, early Friday morning in the longest game in franchise history.
But it seems as though the Stars may be better off without any more power plays this series.
Trevor Daley skated more than 28 minutes and picked up his first postseason goal in more than two years while serving the ironman role typically filled by Letang, serving a one-game suspension for an illegal hit in Game 3. It was an understated account of a season-saving goal.
“They got a bounce on their first goal … that’s just puck luck”, said Ruff. “He’s flexible, he sees the ice well and he’s very underrated playing the puck”. “We had to get it turned around the other way”. Not on media-drive storylines and narratives that fill newspapers and websites during the playoffs. I like the Blues to get the job done at home and advance to the next round. “It’s just got to go in”.
Behind a two-point game from Ovechkin and 30 saves by Braden Holtby, Washington cut its deficit to 3-2 and forced Game 6 on Tuesday night in Pittsburgh. “Everybody knew this was going to be a long, hard series for both teams”. As it was, they had six – not that any of the four officials noticed – and still gave up the freebie to the Blues’ hottest scorer.
It’s possible that St. Louis mixes up their lineup, with the possibility that Steve Ott or Robert Bortuzzo draw back into the lineup in place of someone like Ryan Reaves or Joel Edmundson. On the power play goal, Jamie Benn cut out from the left post with Jay Bouwmeester failing to take the body. “Pretty rich competition, too”. Faksa said thank you and fired it five-hold on Brian Elliott to tie up the game.
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“Yeah, those things happen”, Elliott said. “You just can’t miss it from that much sand, you know?” “We tied it up”.
