SAN JOSE, Calif. — Changing goaltenders gave the St. Louis Blues a spark. Changing their style of play helped them even up the Western Conference final at two games apiece.
SAN JOSE, Calif. — Changing goaltenders gave the St. Louis Blues a spark. Changing their style of play helped them even up the Western Conference final at two games apiece.
Troy Brouwer and Kyle Brodziak each scored twice, Jake Allen stopped 31 shots in his first start of the postseason and the Blues bounced back from consecutive shutout losses to beat the San Jose Sharks 6-3 in Game 4 on Saturday night.
“I thought we went back to our roots, what made us successful all throughout the regular season the first two rounds of the playoffs,” Brouwer said. “We were able to get pucks deep, we were able to create chances from below the goal line rather than trying to create stuff off the rush.”
Coach Ken Hitchcock hoped the change in goalie from Brian Elliott would help his dormant offense and the move paid off as the Blues controlled the play from the start of Game 4.
Brouwer and Jori Lehtera scored in the first period and the Blues rolled after getting dominated the previous two games when they were outscored 7-0. Alex Pietrangelo added an empty-netter to seal it.
“He gave us exactly what we needed,” Hitchcock said about Allen. “He’s a competitive son of a gun. We needed a battler in there. We needed somebody to really help us play better defense. We played with more passion in front of him in our own zone because I made the goalie change. I had to make that decision.”
Now it will be up to San Jose to reverse the momentum in Game 5 on Monday night in St. Louis.
Martin Jones, who became the first Sharks goalie with consecutive playoff shutouts, was pulled midway through the second period after allowing four goals on 19 shots. James Reimer allowed one goal on seven shots in his first action of the playoffs.
Joe Pavelski set a San Jose franchise record with his 10th goal of the postseason. Chris Tierney and Melker Karlsson also scored in the third for the Sharks, but it wasn’t enough as San Jose went 0 for 5 on the power play and allowed a short-handed goal.
“We weren’t as sharp as we could have been early,” Sharks captain Joe Pavelski said. “We created a few chances, but we don’t get enough off it. We just really need to be sharp.”