Jaroslav Halak earns his third shutout of the season to lead St. Blues to fifth-straight win
The St. Louis Blues, who have only qualified for the play-offs once since the lockout, are beginning to emerge as one of the most dominant teams in the Western Conference. The turnaround is due in large
part to their acquisition over the summer of goaltender Jaroslav Halak from the Montreal Canadiens, who continued to prove his worth with his third shutout of the season, as the Blues went on to defeat the San Jose Sharks by a score of 2-0 on Thursday, 4 November.
How it happened
The Blues got help from another former Canadien, Matt D'Agostini, who opened the scoring at 17:41 of the first period with his fifth of the season. Barret Jackman flipped a puck into the Sharks' zone and
D'Agostini used his speed to get to it before firing a wrist shot from a tight angle past Antti Niemi.
The Blues went up 2-0 when T.J. Oshie threw a puck towards the San Jose net that David Perron grabbed out of the air before pulling it down and firing a backhand into the net.
From there it was all Jaroslav Halak, who stopped all 25 shots that he faced.
What they're saying
In typical Halak fashion, the 25-year-old downplayed his performance when he was asked by reporters to comment on his impressive start to the season.
"I'm not doing anything special. I'm just trying to do what I can," said Halak.
Halak's team-mates understand, and are quick to point out, the significance of Halak's consistent goaltending.
"The way Jaro is playing gives us confidence," Perron said. "We feel really confident when he's in net. The best thing is that we play our game. It doesn't matter who we play, we come out and play our
own style."
Sharks captain Joe Thornton was assessed 17 minutes worth of penalties over the course of the game including a game misconduct for an illegal hit on Perron in the second period, but Thornton admitted he
felt there was nothing wrong with the hit.
"I felt like I established myself on the ice," he said. "I just braced myself for the hit. He just ran into me, to be honest with you."
Two hot goalies will go head-to-head on Saturday, 6 November, when Halak and the Blues head to Boston to take on Tim Thomas and the Bruins.
The San Jose Sharks, who have now lost two in a row, now get set to host the Tampa Bay Lightning who are finishing up their Western Conference road swing on Saturday night.
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