St. Louis Blues stun San Jose Sharks with 3-0 shutout, level Playoff series -NHL Update
St. Louis went in with the upper hand as they took San Jose easy in the opening match of the 2012 National Hockey League (NHL) Western Conference playoff quarterfinals. Jaroslav Halak started the match but Brian Elliott made a comeback later on after the
former left with an undisclosed injury.
Elliott blocked 17 crucial shots as Blues shutout the Sharks, 3-0, for their first playoff win since 2004, this time at the sold-out Scottrade Center in Saint Louis, Missouri.
"The adrenaline kind of takes over, you forget about your body and just go out there and play," Elliott said. "You prepare every game like you're going to play, it's not like I was nonchalant before the game. "When you get a chance you have to be prepared."
Vladimir Sobotka got the first in the opening matchup unassisted on the breakaway while David Backes followed up with the second in round-two.
Andy McDonald secured the matchup with his power play goal with less than 30 seconds remaining as San Jose pulled their goalie in the final seconds but to no use as St. Louis was just too hard in every sense to crack.
In the playoffs, it is definitely a whole different situation and Blues realise that taking it easy any further will certainly cost them going up against experienced teams.
"Teams like San Jose, Detroit, Chicago, they play right through you, and if you don't push back you get pushed out the back door," Blues’ head coach, Ken Hitchcock, said. "I was proud of our team that we fought back. If we didn't, this was going to be a
short series."
With the final minute left to play, both teams just decided to take their anger out on each other with a number of fights breaking out at the 20 minute mark while numerous incidents of roughing took place.
As the quarterfinal series between San Jose Sharks and St. Louis Blues will be heading to San Jose, California, now the situation will be a lot more interesting. Seeing Blues play under another home crowd will be interesting with the next match being on
Monday, April 16.
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