Vladimir Tarasenko broke a 1-1 tie in the middle frame and then used a power move on the right wing to sweep around the Dallas Stars defense for his second goal of the game and a 3-1 lead on Thursday night.
“I obviously scored (in the third),” Tarasenko said. “Cut the middle. It’s nice, but guys know you do this a lot, so you just try to take the puck wide, take it to the net, use the body, and good thing it works at the right time.”
That second goal was the game-winner as the St Louis Blues grabbed a 3-2 win and 1-0 second round series lead over the Stars.
“That was a massive one to give us some confidence,” Blues center Ryan O’Reilly said. “Our first power play we had there wasn’t great. We needed to get back to shooting the puck to generate some momentum, and obviously it was a big play. Everyone was involved on it, and it gave us some big confidence for sure.”
Jordan Binnington made27 saves for the win; he needed 16 stops in the third period to keep the Dallas offense at bay.
“I’m happy with the outcome,” Binnington said. “I think both teams were feeling each other out in the first couple periods, and the third period was pretty tight and they were coming hard. We have to regroup and focus for Game 2 now.”
His only blemish in the third period was a power play marker from Jamie Benn that closed the deficit for Dallas to one goal.
“We stuck with it,” Benn said. “I thought our third was not bad. We gave up that one early, but it’s going to happen. … They’re a good team. Tarasenko made a great move, and you’ve got to give credit to them.”
Jason Spezza also scored for the Stars.
The Stars were pushing their offense forward in the third period looking for tying goal; they outshot St Louis, 17-6, in the period.
“I just think that’s desperation,” Stars coach Jim Montgomery said. “And we had two power plays. That helps.”
Robby Fabbri opened the scoring on the Blues’ first shot of the game.
[WATCH: Stars vs. Blues Game 1 highlights | Complete series coverage]
Ben Bishop made 17 saves in the loss.
“I thought we created some chances and had some good energy when we got out there. Probably could have scored another one somewhere along the way there in the third, but just trying to create momentum when we get out there,” Spezza said after the game.
You must be logged in to post a comment.