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 The Blues rookie scored his 17th goal of the season midway through
the third period to break a scoreless tie and send the St. Louis
Blues past San Jose 1-0 at SAP Center.
"That's the type of game we knew we were going to get," Blues coach
Ken Hitchcock said. "That's the type of game we wanted to end the
road trip on."
The Blues (43-22-9) remain two points behind the first-place Dallas
Stars in the Central Division after winning for the eighth time in
10 games. They recorded their first win over San Jose in three
regular-season meetings.
San Jose's second loss in six games meant the Sharks will have to
wait at least another night to cinch an 11th Stanley Cup playoff
spot in 12 years. The third-place Sharks (41-26-6) also squandered a
chance to pass Anaheim and pull within three points of Pacific
Division-leading Los Angeles on a night when both the Ducks and
Kings lost.
"Teams aren't losing much this time of the year, and we had a chance
to push it at least to overtime," Sharks captain Joe Pavelski said.
"It's a missed opportunity for sure."
 On the game-deciding goal, Fabbri outraced Pavelski for a loose puck
chipped out of the zone by St. Louis forward Troy Brouwer. Leading a
two-on-one advantage against San Jose defenseman Justin Braun,
Fabbri stopped, deked as if he might pass to Paul Stastny and
instead wristed a shot past Sharks goalie Martin Jones at 9:55.
"Originally I thought (Braun) was coming at me, so I was going to
pass it across to Stastny," Fabbri said. "But he backed off and I
had a little bit of time."
Fabbri's shot might have had some assistance, as late-arriving
Sharks defenseman Dylan DeMelo appeared to get his stick on the
puck, changing the direction of the shot to the inside post against
Jones.
"I thought about going at him right away, but I didn't want to give
up the pass," Braun said of defending Brouwer inside the St. Louis
zone. "He got a pretty good bounce off the glass. You want to play
it different after the fact. I wish I had gone at him now."
The Blues had to survive a pair of late minor penalties that enabled
the Sharks to skate six-on-three for 38 seconds with Jones pulled.
"You don't coach for six-on-three," Hitchcock said. "We didn't even
know what to say. They had so many one-timers. Guys were locked and
loaded."
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St. Louis goalie Brian Elliott stood tall, stopping all nine shots
the Sharks threw at him during the final 2:45 of power-play time to
collect his third shutout of the season and the 33rd of his career.
He finished with 37 saves.
"It makes it challenging for sure, but our guys did a great job
taking away lanes and taking away opportunities," Elliott said.
"(Joe) Thornton, holding onto the side of the net there, he's a
playmaker. We didn't give him much, and when they did get a chance,
I could see it. That's a testament to our guys out there."
The hosts were disappointed they couldn't take advantage of their
late power plays.
"We had a couple good looks but no traffic," Sharks forward Logan
Couture said.
Pavelski added, "We came on at the end a little bit, but we didn't
get one by him. It's tough. We're disappointed we lost. We had an
opportunity on the power play. We've got to come up with a big one
there."
Jones stopped 23 of the 24 shots he faced.
NOTES: San Jose D Marc-Edouard Vlasic may miss another week to 10
days, if not longer, according to coach Peter DeBoer. Vlasic, who is
nursing a lower-body injury sustained March 17, has missed two games
and has yet to return even for practice. "The key for him is that
he's healthy come playoff time, but he'll be back before that,"
DeBoer said. ... The Blues, who capped a five-game road trip on
Tuesday, play host to the Vancouver Canucks on Friday before facing
the Capitals in Washington on Saturday. ... San Jose continues a
season-high, six-game homestand by hosting the Edmonton Oilers on
Thursday. ... LW Matt Nieto (broken knuckle) and D Matt Tennyson
(concussion) remain out for San Jose. St. Louis was missing LW Steve
Ott (hamstring) and C Alex Steen (upper body).
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