Blues Win in Elliott’s Debut
Game #4 St. Louis Blues at San Jose Sharks
The St. Louis Blues continued their road trip to the west coast to take on big Joe Thornton and the San Jose Sharks. After starting the road trip with a loss to Dallas and a loss of Andy McDonald to a possible concussion, the Blues were looking to overcome more shortcomings.
The scoring started early in the first period for the Blues when Matt D’Agostini capitalized on a Shark turnover. During matching penalties to Barret Jackman and Ryane Clowe, Jason Demers sent an errant pass into the middle of the his own zone when D’Agostini it picked up, drove it by one defender and beat Thomas Greiss for a 1-0 lead. Greiss finished with 16 saves on 19 shots.
Special teams for the Blues were poor again as they went 0-3 with the man-advantage and were beaten once short handed. That came from Michal Handzus late in the first period with David Backes sitting out two minutes for interference. Demers put a pass right on Clowe’s stick in front of the net and Brian Elliott was up to the challenge. However, he could not corral the rebound and Handzus chipped it over his pads to even the score through the first.
Only one tally could be had in the second period and it came from the Sharks. Backes was outworked by Clowe on the boards low in the Blues zone when the Clowe passed it to the point for newcomer Brent Burns. Scoring his first goal with the Sharks, Burns fired a blistering shot through traffic that deflected off two Blues. Elliott tried to pinch it off but the puck squeaked through to give San Jose the lead.
The score was notched even again early in the third when a strong forecheck by Patrik Berglund turned the puck over for Kent Huskins who scored his first goal of the season and first as a Blue. The wrist shot slipped between a spinning Vladimir Sobotka to beat Greiss. Huskins finished with a strong game in his defensive zone as well.
St. Louis continued to apply pressure to San Jose even while being outshot 36-19. Almost midway through the third the pressure paid off again when Alex Steen scored his second goal of the year. Steen broke out down the boards, fed a pass to Kevin Shattenkirk who gave it right back to Steen to finish off the play with a short side shot that beat Greiss.
A couple Blues made their debuts Saturday in San Jose. Evgeny Grachev saw his first action starting on a line with Chris Porter and Scott Nichol. However, he was quickly bumped up to the first line with Backes and Jamie Langenbrunner after his strong play made an impression on coach Davis Payne.
Brian Elliott also got his first start of the season and put on quite the performance. Stopping 34 of 36, Elliott was on top of his game throughout the night. No moment was bigger than in the last minutes of the game with the Blues shorthanded again. With Chris Stewart in the box for tripping, the Sharks were looking to even the game up. Thornton sent a perfect cross ice pass to Dan Boyle which exposed an open net from a poorly positioned Elliott. Seeing red, Boyle sent the shot in for a seemingly sure goal. But with a quick flash of leather, Elliot made the save of the game to preserve the one goal lead.
The Blues ended the game strong and David Backes scored his first goal of the season with an empty netter to finish off the Sharks with a stamped victory.
Up Next: Sunday at the Anaheim Ducks.
