St. Louis Blues edge New Jersey Devils 4-3 in intense Shootout -NHL Update
New Jersey’s five-game winning streak came to an end on Thursday night, February 9, 2012, as the St. Louis Blues downed Devils, 4-3, in an intense shootout at the Prudential Center in Newark, New Jersey, United States.
St. Louis’ goalie, Brian Elliott, certainly seems very confident coming out of the win against the Ottawa Senators, 3-1, earlier on Tuesday, and was brought in once again to replace Jaroslav Halak, after he let in three goals on 12 attempts, blocking the
next 15 perfectly.
Elliott was fantastic in the shootout, which does not come as a surprise since the goalie does his homework.
"Before the game, you usually look at the shot guys and what they do in shootouts," Elliott said. "But, again, I wasn't playing and didn't really know, but goalie coach [Corey Hirsch] did a good job relaying a couple messages and that really helped me.”
New Jersey captain, Zach Parise, got the first goal of the night for his 21st of the 2011-2012 National Hockey League (NHL) regular season during their initial power play advantage with St. Louis missing Barret Jackman to a minor penalty.
Blues’ Chris Stewart answered back with his 11th of the year at the 18:43 mark of the first to level the contest.
David Perron hoped to extend the St. Louis momentum coming into the second period with a goal at 4:50 but less than a minute later, New Jersey responded as Adam Henrique and Patrik Elias fired off two consecutive, taking the lead entering the third and final
20 minutes of regulation.
Patrik Berglund tied the game with less than six minutes remaining in the final period, forcing an uncertain overtime, which headed into a shootout after both failed to pot the game-winner.
T.J Oshie scored the only goal of the shootout as Brian Elliott kept the Devils’ players out of the net on all three of their chances.
"It was a real character win by the boys tonight," Oshie said. "After the first two periods, we were lucky to be down by only a goal. To come out, having a big third period and battle all the way through to the shootout was big for us."
St. Louis is definitely looking forward to grab a third straight victory when they host the Colorado Avalanche on Saturday while New Jersey has another at home against Florida Panthers the same day.
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