Sharks At Blues Final Score: Jaroslav Halak Earns Sixth Shutout, Blues Win 3-0

The Blues just seem to keep steamrolling teams at home. Even when it’s a division leader like the San Jose Sharks, the Blues find new ways to win and to outwork the opposition. Tonight it was the exploitation of Sharks’ mistakes that helped the Blues to their 3-0 victory.

The penalty kill had to be busy in the third period, with the Blues giving the Sharks three power plays — two from T.J. Oshie around three minutes apart. Luckily the Blues and Jaroslav Halak were on tonight, able to stop everything that the Sharks threw at them in their last-ditch attempt at wresting victory from the jaws of defeat before Alex Pietrangelo’s empty net goal iced it for the Blues.

Even with three power plays that period, the Sharks managed only 7 shots on net. Total for the game they had 25, all of which Halak turned aside for his now league leading 6th shutout. Looking at the NHL stat leaders page on the goaltending side is like looking at the Blues’ roster page. Halak is leading the league in shutouts (Elliott has five) and is 4th in the league with a 1.97 GAA. Brian Elliott is tied for the league lead in save percentage with Henrik Lundqvist and leads the league in GAA handily with a 1.63.

Tuesday night the Blues travel to Columbus to take on the floundering Blue Jackets. The Jackets just dropped their Sunday evening game against the LA Kings 5-3, and could be just the opponent that the Blues need to keep on climbing up the standings.

Sharks At Blues Second Period Score: More Power Play Time Gives Blues 2-0 Lead

The Blues’ power play has tended to be a pretty impotent unit, but recently David Perron has taken it upon himself to remedy that. Saturday night he had two power play goals against the Colorado Avalanche, and in the second period he netted another. The San Jose Sharks gave the Blues yet another 5-on-3 situation, this time for two whole minutes with matching minors from Brad Winchester and Ryan Clowe. Lots of perimeter passing and an outstanding keep at the line by T.J. Oshie allowed David Perron to bank the puck into the net off of Antti Niemi’s butt:

The Blues and the Sharks both had ten shots on goal, which goes to show how much passing was done on that power play, but it’s not the shots that win you games, it’s the goals — and so far St. Louis is two goals closer to gaining ground on Detroit.

Sharks At Blues First Period Score: Extended Power Play Time Give Blues 1-0 Edge

It took Andy McDonald all of fifteen minutes to get on the scoresheet tonight. After a standing ovation when he was announced in the starting line-up, McDonald hopped back into playing like he never left. He has been zipping around the ice like a water bug — a fast, speedy waterbug with amazing ice vision and playmaking skills.

The Blues outshot the Sharks 10-7; the shooting was 4-1 Sharks initially, but several very ill advised penalties on San Jose’s part changed that trend quickly. Three periods within three minutes gave the Blues two 5-on-3 power plays, and Alex Pietrangelo made them pay with this bomb through traffic:

And that is why, even if it is the St. Louis Blues, you don’t give teams extended power play time.

Sharks At Blues: Andy McDonald Returns To The Line-Up Tonight

The Blues are humming right along, putting distance between themselves and third place Nashville. Another home win tonight could put them within one point of the division-leading Detroit Red Wings.