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 That prompted a wake-up message from coach Todd McLellan before
the start of the third period.
"We let the momentum get away from us," McLellan said. "We caused it
ourselves more than anything. We have to learn from that. We needed
to take advantage of a team that was tired and beat up and we did
that tonight."
The Sharks received the message and got a third-period goal from
right winger Marty Havlat to put an end to the Blues comeback and
complete a 4-2 victory.
The Sharks took the early lead on first-period goals by center Joe
Pavelski and defenseman Matt Irwin, followed by a goal by right
winger Brent Burns in the second period.
"We regrouped and played great in the third," Havlat said. "We kind
of stopped playing after it was 3-0 and thought maybe the game was
over. The wakeup call at the intermission was maybe a little bit
louder than usual."
The Sharks expected to have an advantage over the Blues, who did not
arrive in St. Louis until about 2 a.m. Tuesday morning after playing
Monday night in Ottawa and were without three of their top six
forwards because of injuries. The Sharks had not played since
Saturday night.
That showed early, as the Sharks consistently won the battles for
loose pucks and Pavelski and Irwin both took advantage of bounces
off the end boards for their goals.
The poor first period for the Blues continued a trend against the
Sharks this season. In three games, all victories, the Sharks have
outscored the Blues 8-0 in the first period. The Sharks held the
Blues to only four shots on goal in taking the 2-0 lead after the
opening period Tuesday.
"Every game has been different, it's really good to get three wins,"
McLellan said. "Tonight I don't think was indicative of what could
happen if we meet down the road in the playoffs. They're going to
have a different lineup and be a lot fresher but you have four or
five of these games a year and you have to take advantage of it."
The Blues, in the opinion of coach Ken Hitchcock, had too many games
like Tuesday night where they got off to a poor start — not just
the three games against San Jose.
"It's something we're going to have to address," Hitchcock said.
"We've had too many of these starts like this — not engaged quickly
enough. Some we got away with and some we didn't. Obviously there's
a preparation problem. We're giving up too many scoring chances.
We're not going to win games giving up this many goals.
[to top of second column] |
"It's not one group, it's not one player, it's collective.
It's not defense, it's not goaltending, it's not the forwards.
It's everybody. This is a total team thing that we can fix."
Goalie Jaroslav Halak struggled in the first period of his
recent starts. In his last five games, he surrendered 10 goals
in the opening period and only four combined in the second and
third periods.
"It seems like every time we go to the second period we are down
and it's hard to come back every game," Halak said. "We have to
play better in the first period. It starts with me."
The Blues finally came to life late in the second period.
Defenseman Kevin Shattenkirk scored on a slap shot from the
point at 15:31 and with only 25 seconds left in the period
defenseman Jay Bouwmeester cut the lead to 3-2 when his slap
shot got past Sharks goalie Antti Niemi, who appeared to be
screened on the play.
"They were depleted tonight," Pavelski said. "We haven't always
taken advantage of that this year. We knew they wouldn't lay
down. They came with a hard push in the second and we responded
in the third. Guys weren't happy the way we ended the second
period."
The win was only the second in their last six games for the
Sharks, who had lost three consecutive games on the road.
NOTES: The Blues were without three of their top forwards in the
game, including their captain, David Backes. The center left
Monday night's game in Ottawa after a collision with Senators C
Colin Greening that led to an apparent concussion. Backes played
in 274 consecutive regular-season games since Jan. 25, 2010, and
289 consecutive games including the playoffs. ... St. Louis LW
Jaden Schwartz and C Vladimir Sobotka both sat out for the
second night in a row. ... While the Blues had to play Monday
and travel back to St. Louis to play their third game in four
nights Tuesday, the Sharks were waiting in St. Louis since
playing the Predators in Nashville on Saturday night. ... St.
Louis coach Ken Hitchcock celebrated his 62nd birthday Tuesday .
... The Sharks play the Kings in Los Angeles on Thursday, the
same night the Blues play host to the Montreal Canadiens.
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