Follow @stlgoalie The Blues rallied from a two goal deficit in the third period before falling in double overtime in game five by a score of 4-3 in yet another hotly contested game. All five games have been one goal games. A video recap of the game can be seen here .
After a scoreless first period, the game saw both teams score on on the Blackhawks second penalty of the game on goals from Marian Hossa and Jaden Schwartz on shots which both goalies usually stop. Artemi Panarin used his skill to create a goal for Artem Anisimov by taking advantage of weak board play by Colton Parayko, terrible positioning by Kevin Shattenkirk and poor depth and rebound cotntrol by Brian Elliott to score the Hawks 2nd goal. The Second period ended with the Blues giving up another late second period goal on a face-off they “won… thanks to a very poor play by Jay Bouwmeester. Patrick Berglund won the face-off back to the corner wall where Bouwmeester tried to play the puck rather than burying it and the clock. If he makes the correct play and ties up Kane and the puck, the time bleeds off. Instead he makes a bad decision and Kane gets a piece of the puck and feeds Panarin for a one timer with 0.4 seconds left. You have to know the time and situation. This was just one of the examples of the extremely poor game Bouwmeester had.
The Blues played a strong third period, getting two goals that were both largely created by rookie Robby Fabbri. On the first goal, Fabbri gains the offensive zone, makes a few moves cutting to the middle to put a shot past Crawford. On the second goal, the undersized Fabbri makes a great play along the wall against Brent Seabrook, finding Alex Pietrangelo with a brilliant pass. Pietrangelo's shot is re-directed by David Backes past Crawford. The Blues had some quality looks in the latter part of the third period but Crawford stood tall.
The first overtime was largely dominated by the Blues, outshooting the Hawks 11 to 7 but the play not being that close. Crawford was the difference stopping a number of point blank chances, including two from Alexander Steen who had a very rough game for the Blues. With three minutes gone in the second overtime, Kane abused former teammate Troy Brouwer with a good toe-drag move. Pietrangelo takes a bad line to support Brouwer with both he and Brouwer going to Kane's left while Kane moves to his right. Pietrangelo recovers well to tie him up, interfering with Kane's shot attempt. The shot appears to go off Elliott's stick or Bouwmeester's skate and drift to the far post. Pietrangelo runs into Toews who is maintaining his position at the side of the net and is unable to chase Kane around the net or cut him off at the far post. Elliott has no idea where the puck is and Kane puts it into the empty net.
As has been the case for many of the games in the series, the team that carried play lost. As I said in the comment section of the last blog, I think both overtime goals in the series were directly a result of some puck luck. I've always said you make your own luck by hard work and doing the right things. Kane did that on the goal by making a good move on Brouwer and then following it up with a hustle play but the goal doesn't happened without the mostly blocked shot re-directing in the exact way it did. Will the goal give Kane some confidence and get him going? Maybe. He made a good board play and a good hustle play that both earned him points. He only had 1 shot the rest of the entire game in over 31 minutes. I don't see how people think he played that much better than the prior games. He just had more efficient results.
Some are suggesting that the Blues have lost some of their confidence. I'm not buying that narrative. The Blues significantly controlled 70 minutes or more of the game. They didn't get the result they likely feel they should have. Is this all that different than game two? Perhaps but it's still similar. Looking at it differently, the Blues played their worst 10 minutes of the series, got down 2 goals going into the third period, got very poor games from Alexander Steen and Jay Bouwmeester, got below average goaltending from Brian Elliott, faced one of Corey Crawford's best games in the series and they still almost won. I know this isn't fair but if Elliott posts his regular season save percentage during regulation, he gives up 1 goal less.
Some may point to Pietrangelo saying “hockey gods are testing us right now… but they have been testing them all year and he followed it up with “it's going to be fun to win it in Chicago. Fabbri added, “everyone's heads are still up and coming in with the same mentality to game six…. Steve Ott added, “we are a different team. They know we're a different team.… Ott followed things up yesterday with “the team we've seen throughout these five games, you're going to see it the rest of the way…. If Ott is right, I really like the Blues chances of moving on.
Speaking of quotes and interviews, anyone else think it was funny that a someone asked Fabbri “is this a reminder how tough it is to finish off a team, especially the cup champions…? Last I checked, this was Fabbri first NHL playoff series so I'm not sure he has any idea reference for comparing this to when it comes to NHL playoffs which I surmise are way different than junior hockey.
Game 6 will see some Chicago lineup changes with Andrew Shaw returning. Look for him to take Panik's spot with Toews and Kane and for Panik to take Mashinter's spot with Desjardins and Weise. It will be interesting to see what Coach Hitchcock does with the Blues defensive lineup.
Game 5 and other stat notes - Rundblad played less than 7 minutes w/ less than a minute coming in the third period & none in OT. - Gustaffson palyed less than 15 minutes with 4:10 of that being in OT. - Keith played 42 minutes, over half the game. - Seabrook played almost 40 minutes and more than half the third period on. - Bortuzzo played 14 minutes with 3:15 or so of that being in OT. - Gunnarsson with a little under 16 minutes w/ 4:51 in the first OT but none in the 2nd OT. Hurt again? - Brouwer and Stastny were -4 with 1 shot combined. - Steen was -3 and had 6 shots, missing on a number of high quality chances. - Elliot's last 3 % in games after a sub 90% save percentage game – 100%, 92.6%, and 100% - Elliott's average % in games after sub 90% save percentage game since 11/15/15 – 93.5%
Notes from around the league - A Blues win tonight ensures a new Cup champion this decade. - 75% of the series had a game 5 elimination game with the only away clincher winning (SJ) - The potential home clinchers have been 1-3 with the Penguins trying today. - The Panthers/Islanders series are all 1 goal games if you remove 1 empty net goal. - 4 of the 5 Kings/Sharks games were 1 goal games. - There have only been 6 OT games this playoffs and only 2 double OT. - The loser of each game of the Flyers/Capitals games has scored 1 goal or less.
It’s a great day for hockey.