The stark contract between the St Louis Blues attitude and the San Jose Sharks take away from Game 3 was evident Thursday night in San Jose.
Martin Jones had just logged 22 saves in his second straight shutout performance to give the Sharks a 2-1 series lead.
“Yeah, I think if you look at the games, we’ve done it as a group,” Jones said after the game. “I’m not being asked to steal these games, just make the saves that you expect your goaltender to make in a conference final.”
For Jones, it was his third shutout of the post season and Joe Thornton has been talking about Jones’ confidence level. His current shutout streak is at nearly 151 minutes.
“I’m just trying to stop the puck, to be honest,” Jones said when asked about practicing exuding confidence. “No, I mean, they came hard. Both teams knew the situation that we were in. They pressed hard the first 10 minutes. Even the times we were in our own zone, we really didn’t give up a lot of grade A chances. We did a great job all night.”
Game 4 is in San Jose on Saturday (7:15 p.m. ET; NBC, CBC, TVA Sports).
“It’s a long ways to go,” Sharks captain Joe Pavelski said. “It really is. We’ll worry about this next game and we’ll take it from there. Got to have that same kind of energy. The crowd was great. It’s a fun atmosphere out there.”
There was no elation in the Sharks interviews but certainly the confidence is growing.
On the St Louis side, there is certainly no panic but there is concern for the lack of offense.
The Blues got the start they wanted over the first few minutes of the game but the Sharks bent then replied.
“I thought it was longer than that. I thought we really had a great start. I thought we had a lot of the things that we wanted to do, we did a great job with them,” Blues coach Ken Hitchcock said. “I think when it went 1-0, there was a period of time, probably seven or eight minutes, that we probably tried to force things offensively. Got a little bit frustrated there. Thought we gathered ourselves in again, especially at the end of the second period.
“But when you’re not scoring, you have two choices: either be diligent and stay the program, or ometimes you get forcing offense. The second goal was an example of that. It’s 1-0 hockey game. We got to feel comfortable playing it. We’re in great shape. Then we make a mistake. We cross-ice pass it to a covered guy, it’s a two-on-one that ends up being a three-on-one. It’s in our net. Now we’re coming from behind.”
Tomas Hertl scored twice in the Logan Couture had an assist, his 20th point of the post season.
“The series is 2-1. You got to win four games. This is nothing,” Hitchcock said after the shutout loss. “When we get down three and three-quarters and we only got a quarter left, you can kind of ask me that question. Right now it’s 2-1.
“The interesting response from us, it’s the response that’s going to have to be good for us. We’re the first team of these two teams that’s taken the bump now. Somebody had to be down 2-1. Neither one of us have experienced that. So we’re going to have to deal with it.”
The energy required to stay with the Sharks on their power play and the offensive zone scheme is wearing down the opposition especially the Blues.
“But it’s still only 2-1. And we had a lot of good things today. Our fourth line was incredible. Looks like we have a real viable line that can play a lot more minutes if the coach is a little smarter. Got something going there. Got more participants,” Hitchcock added.
“What we really need is for a clearer understanding with some of our players who have in some ways had it a little bit their own way. This is harder because the team we’re playing is fully committed to checking, every player is. It’s going to be really difficult for both teams to score. They got the lead, and that second goal was the killer for us right now. That’s how fine the line is right now.”
St Louis will need an early goal in Game 4 if they are to make a dent in the Sharks’ scheme. San Jose responded to the changes in the Blues game plan early in Game 3 and will need that again.
“They made some changes to the lineup, they made some changes to their structure a little bit too,” Sharks coach Peter DeBoer said. “They tried to push us back a little bit, create a little bit more space. I think it took us a little bit to adjust.
“I thought the first five, 10 minutes of the game, we were on our heels a little bit. But, you know, as the game wore on, we got more comfortable with how it was going to be played. I thought we got into a real rhythm and really took control.”
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