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Blues vs. Stars Game 2 Recap

May 2, 2016, 9:21 PM ET [41 Comments]
Jason Millen
St Louis Blues Blogger • RSSArchiveCONTACT


The Blues evened their second round series against the Dallas Stars with a 4-3 overtime victory. A video recap of the game can be seen here.

The Blues fell behind less than 4 minutes into the game as a result of yet another example of poor defensive zone coverage. Jori Lehtera got caught chasing a man already being covered by Jaden Schwartz and Vladimir Tarasenko was out high at the deep right point while Joel Edmundson and Kevin Shattenkirk were defending two Stars below the goal line. Lehtera tried to recover but he couldn’t get to Alex Goligoski in time and his one-timer beat Brian Elliott high glove side.

The Blues answered back 35 seconds later as David Backes led a slight 3 on 2 break before giving the puck to Patrick Berglund in the middle of the ice. Berglund slid the puck over to Robby Fabbri at the blue line. Fabbri feathered a pass by Stephen Johns back to Berglund who blistered a one-timer past the glove of Kari Lehtonen.

Less than three minutes later, the Blues took their first lead of the series. The play was started by strong forechecking by Troy Brouwer and Paul Stastny. Their forecheck freed the puck to Scottie Upshall who slid a pass to Brouwer at the goal line. Brouwer hit a streaking Joel Edmundson for a one-timer over Lehtonen’s blocking shoulder. The Blues closed out the first period with a power play goal from Troy Brouwer, extending their lead to 3-1 on a juicy rebound given up by Lehtonen and ending a very efficient period where the Blues scored three times on only five shots. .

Lindy Ruff brought Antti Niemi in to start the second period. While the Blues played their strongest second period of the playoffs, outshooting the stars 10-6, they couldn’t put a puck past Niemi. Both teams traded quality power play chances with Niemi stopping Brouwer and Elliott stopping Benn and Jason Spezza.

Most Blues fans likely felt pretty good at the Blue chances given how the Blues have played in the third period during this year’s playoffs. Unfortunately, this was easily of the Blues worst third periods in recent memory. The team went into a complete defensive shell and looked tired, getting outshot 13-2. Mattias Janmark turned on the after burners and cut the lead to one less than five minutes into the period. Jamie Benn tied up the game with about 2:30 left in the game. Cody Eakin won the faceoff (giving him 3 assists on the game) back to Kris Russell. Russell’s shot from the point appeared to hit some bodies in front and fall to Benn, uncovered in front of the net as Carl Gunnarsson and Colton Parayko both covered the right side, leaving Benn open on the left side. Brian Elliott tried to push off the post to get out to Benn but his skate missed, sending Elliott down and out and making it easy for Benn to find the net.

Unlike the third period, the Blues played a strong overtime period. Both goalies made a few good saves before Antoine Roussel took his third penalty of the game. On the ensuing power play, Tarasenko took a shot that Alex Goligoski blocked with his right knee, taking him mostly out of the rest of the play. Tarasenko slid the puck, back to Shattenkirk at the left point who moved it to Alexander Steen at the right point for a one-time blast with David Backes providing a screen. Backes then made a jumping spin move to get into position to bat in the rebound past Niemi, providing the game winner and a very happy birthday for Backes.

Anyway, let’s look at how the Blues performed relative to Jammer’s Blues Keys.

Timely goaltending
Given that Kari Lehtonen started left the game only stopping 2 of 5 shots, the Blues probably get the edge in this key. Niemi did make some quality and timely saves as did Brian Elliott with both stopping 50 of 54 shots.

Contain the Stars Big 4
The Blues failed on this key with Benn getting a goal and assist along with 5 shots. The Blues were able to contain Spezza and Sharp who did not register a point and only had two shots each.

Special Teams
The Blues had a decided advantage on special teams scoring two power play goals, including the game winner, on only five chances. They also killed all four of the Stars power play chances.

Injuries
Injuries may have played a bit of a role in the game as Brian Elliott seemed a bit dazed and may not have been quite as sharp after getting a paint chip in his eye as a result of a Spezza slapshot to the mask. Also, factoring into an important part of the game, Alex Goligoski was unable to get back into the game winning goal play after blocking Tarasenko’s shot with his right knee. He may not have been able to prevent it but he was in no position to support the play.

Rookies
Once again, the Blues rookies played a strong game with the strength of the cast changing. Joel Edmundson continued his growing play, making a great offensive read and scoring his first playoff goal. Robby Fabbri rebounded from his poor performance in game one to assist on two goals in just over 15 minutes of ice time.

The special teams and rookie play along with better goaltending led the Blues to the overtime victory.

Stats of the game
- Carl Gunnarsson had more ice time than Kevin Shattenirk.
- Ryan Reaves had 5 hits in only 6:18 of ice time.
- Blues outhit the Stars 42 to 23
- Tarasenko went from leading all forwards in TOI in game one to 6th in game two.
- Jamie Benn again led all forwards in TOI.
- Alex Pietrangelo again led all defensemen in TOI.

NHL Champions for Charity
In what I hope becomes a hockeybuzz tradition, Bill Meltzer and I placed a wager on the series. If the Blues win, Bill has agreed to make a donation to Safe Connections (@SafeConnections on twitter) whose mission is to reduce the impact and incident of relationship violence and sexual assault through education, crisis intervention, and counseling services. If the Stars win, I will donate to Snider Hockey ( @SniderHockey on twitter) whose mission is to build lives and unite communities, helping educate young people to succeed in the game of life.

I'm going to work on starting NHL Champion for Charity which I hope will get players and fans to pledge donations for each win their team makes in the NHL playoffs. For the players, it would be great if they would agree to donate a small percentage of their playoff bonuses to charity while fans could donate an amount per win, perhaps both upping it if their team won the Stanley Cup. As a simple example, a player could pledge 0.25% per win with a bonus 1% if they win the Cup, bringing their total to 5%. I likely won't get any traction on this until next year if ever but at least wanted to put the idea out there now.

It’s a great day for hockey.
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