St. Louis Blues left wing Jaden Schwartz (17) celebrates with right wing David Backes (42) after Backes scored past Dallas Stars goaltender Antti Niemi in the first period of Game 3 of the NHL hockey Stanley Cup Western Conference semifinals, Tuesday, May 3, 2016, in St. Louis. Brian Elliott stopped 25 of 28 shots, but it was not enough to lead the Blues to their third consecutive win.
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Seconds before the Stars went the other way and scored the overtime game-winner, Lehtonen got his left pad on a point-blank Jori Lehtera shot, set up by Vladimir Tarasenko, and his teammates responded.
The Stars actually took first blood in this battle, beating the Blues 2-1 at the American Airlines Center to open up the series. Playoff time is not the time for your special teams units to go into a slumber (The penalty kill, meanwhile, has allowed four goals on 14 Blues power plays.).
Paul Stastny tied the score when he deflected a Tarasenko shot by Stars goalie Kari Lehtonen late in the second period.
The contemptuousness between two division rivals ramped up a notch near the end of Game 3 when Blues tough guy Ryan Reaves taunted the Stars bench, then down 5-1, by blowing a kiss as he skated off after fighting Stars forward Curtis McKenzie.
“That’s the nice thing about finishing first, we’ve got home court advantage back and it’s a race to two, and it’s going to be a lot of fun”, said Eakin, a wad of gauze stuffed up his left nostril after taking a shot to the beak just before scoring the victor.
“We still couldn’t defend Tarasenko, which is kind of ironic”, Ruff said.
David Backes and his three playoff game winning goals probably agrees.
Tyler Johnson had two goals in Game 2 for the Lightning. Not only that, but this is the first game of the entire playoffs where we as Blues’ fans weren’t at risk of a heart attack.
Benn drew a chorus of boos from the sell-out crowd at Scottrade Center several times during the night, but continued showing off his stellar puck-handling skills while trying to reignite the possession game Dallas prefers to play. The man-advantage lasted just 23 seconds for St. Louis though, as Alex Steen got the gate for interference. The Lightning have outscored them 6-2 the last four periods.
NOTES: Tarasenko leads the Blues with 11 points in the postseason. I’m not going to sugar-coat it.
Sceviour tapped in his own rebound for the Stars’ lone goal at 4:44 of the first.
Blues coach Ken Hitchcock said there’s a lot of animosity in all series right now.
Faksa picked off another giveaway later in the second period, but Elliott denied him a second goal with a good save.
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James Neal and Filip Forsberg each scored on the power-play for the Predators at Nashville. The Stars had hoped RW Patrick Eaves, out since Game 1 because of a leg injury after he was hit by a puck, would be able to play, but he remained in Dallas. “Just focus on our game and do what we can do and just play like we did (in Game 2)”. The rout tied for the largest margin of victory of any playoff game this season.
