San Jose Sharks enter desperation mode with 2-1 St. Louis Blues win -NHL Playoffs Update
San Jose Sharks have now entered desperation mode as St. Louis Blues took game 4, 2-1, of the 2012 National Hockey League (NHL) Stanley Cup Playoffs Western Conference Quarterfinal series for a 3-1 lead on Thursday night, April 19, 2012, at the sold-out
HP Pavilion in San Jose, California.
It was a tight match right till the end as San Jose’s Joe Thornton scored with 1:07 remaining in regulation but an early grab by St. Louis had determined the matchup.
Brian Elliott was making his second straight start of the postseason series and played throughout as veteran goalie, Jaroslav Halak, was ruled out yet again due to an upper-body injury. Elliott made 24 saves and let a single goal through in the 60-minute
contest.
St. Louis has now won both games in San Jose after Sharks got their first victory in Blues territory for game 2, but as the series is now heading back to the Scottrade Center, the foreign team will be looking to bounce back.
B.J. Crombeen got the first of the night, which could be termed as a lucky strike. Crombeen fired it from the side and the puck went right through San Jose goalie, Antti Niemi’s legs 7:12 into the opening period.
Blues were hoping not to stay purely dependent on the power play opportunities and that is exactly what they did as St. Louis gave out more, 4-3, but capitalised on only one while San Jose failed to take advantage of any single one.
Andy McDonald secured the matchup in favour of St. Louis with his third goal of the series on a power play advantage with Patrick Marleau on the benches for interference.
Thornton’s attempt to bring San Jose back was just too late as St. Louis’ defence just shut it down with a little over a minute remaining.
Taking an early lead paid off for St. Louis and they will definitely look forward to doing it again.
Game 5 of the Sharks-Blues series is scheduled to kick off on Saturday, April 21, at the Scottrade Center in St. Louis, Missouri, at 7:30 PM ET.
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