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William Eklund also scored for San Jose and
Ryan Carpenter, Filip Zadina and Nikita Okhotiuk had two assists
each. Kaapo Kahkonen made 44 saves to earn his first victory of
the season.
Pavel Buchnevich scored for the Blues and Robert Thomas extended
his point streak to eight games by earning an assist.
Blues goaltender Joel Hofer allowed four goals in 21 shots
before being replaced after 22:55.
The Sharks scored just 2:02 into the game to take a 1-0 lead.
They came off the right boards to get a 2-on-1 opportunity, with
Nico Sturm feeding Hoffman for a shot into the open left side of
the net.
The Blues stepped up their pressure late in the first period.
But Kahkonen stopped Oskar Sundqvist on a clean break-in during
the final minute, then he denied Sundqvist's rebound conversion
attempt with 11 seconds left.
The Sharks regained momentum for good by scoring three times in
the first 3:25 of the second period to boost their lead to 4-0.
Just 17 seconds into the second period, Okhotiuk fired a shot
from the left point and Eklund deflected it past Hofer from the
high slot.
Smith scored at the 2:39 mark by claiming a loose puck and
scoring from the near slot. Then Kunin scored 46 seconds later,
taking a pass from Smith and scoring from the near slot.
At that point Blues coach Craig Berube replaced Hofer with
Jordan Binnington, who stopped 13 of the 14 shots he faced.
After the Blues applied steady pressure in the San Jose zone,
Hoffman converted a breakaway to make it 5-0 with 6:15 left in
the second period.
The Blues spoiled Kahkonen's shutout bid with 6:05 left to play
when Justin Faulk fired a point shot that Buchnevich deflected
into the net.
--Field Level Media
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