Dallas Stars: Ben Bishop, the goalkeeper of the Stars, shines as the third round approaches: "This is our brick wall"

ST. LOUIS – Ben Bishop loves St. Louis. It's there that he grew up and that he learned to love the Cardinals and Imo's Pizza. It's where he became goalkeeper and where he debuted in the NHL and where he made his home in the off season.

But after the Stars' 2-1 win in the fifth game against the Blues, Bishop would be fine not to see St. Louis for a long time. Dallas pushed the Blues to the brink of elimination on Friday night with a win that gave the Stars a 3-2 lead in the playoffs against the American Airlines Center on Sunday for the sixth game. Another victory of the Stars pushed them towards the final of the Conference of the West; a loss, return to St. Louis for Game 7 Tuesday.

Bishop is a big reason why.

"Ben Bishop was the best player of the game tonight," said Stars coach Jim Montgomery. "I thought the Blues were the best team we had tonight, but Ben Bishop made the difference – he made the difference several times this year."

The Vezina Trophy finalist was wonderful in the last game of the season in his hometown, blocking, blocking and frustrating the Blues to make 38 saves. Bishop held the game tight when St. Louis came out in transition and held the Blues at bay, the Stars thus protecting a two-goal lead and then a goal.

In the first half, he stopped Brayden Schenn, then Alexander Steen and Robert Thomas in the slot. He helped the Stars manage four power play opportunities and offered the kind of performance the Stars franchise expected from Bishop, even after an unusual mistake by the puck in his own net.

"We were not worried about the bench when the puck came in," Montgomery said. "The stops that he made on the penalty just after were unbelievable – it's just somebody who answers – it's our brick wall out there."

Jason Spezza and Esa Lindell scored their first playoff deficit for the Stars and Blues. It was Spezza's third goal in the playoffs (all against the Blues). For Lindell, it was his first career goal in the playoffs.

Jaden Schwartz scored for St. Louis after a third-period reversal of Bishop.

In this series, Bishop was not his typical elite. He was beaten twice between legs in the first game and remotely in games 2 to 4. His backup percentage for the series was just above 0.900. On Friday, Bishop was back.

Bishop is not a guardian who will seduce you with his stops. Instead, he relies on his size and intelligence to read the plays and hit the pucks on the spot. Post-post-pad backups do not often appear in their directory. Bishop manages to manage the puck, which allows the Stars to escape more easily from the area, but can sometimes lead to blunders that have scored a goal.

But the moments of brilliance are still there, and nothing greater than the Bishop 's stop on Oskar Sundqvist with 4:15 remaining to play in the third period of a match at 2-1. Sundqvist crossed in front of Bishop Crus, going from right to left, and had room at the back post. But Bishop pulled out his left pad to prevent Sundqvist from even.

"I saw him there," Bishop said. "And then he started to get around my problem, just despair, throw your leg and luckily he hits it."

The rest of the Stars allowed Bishop's performance to lead to a win.

Dallas was dangerous in transition, regularly generating chances to rush and even on the penalty spot. Tyler Seguin was denied on two breakaways, while Mattias Janmark and Jason Dickinson were also stopped by Jordan Binnington. Spezza's goal came after a transition opportunity and a great pass from Tyler Seguin behind the net. Lindell's goal was quick and on a setback that cut Blues defender Jay Bouwmeester.

Roope Hintz was once again a revelation: he accelerated during a power play to sweep an opportunity from Alex Pietrangelo and picked up by Robert Thomas in the third period to reduce his luck to the zone neutral.

For the Stars, they entered Friday night with a word – potentially overused and positively cliche – in their collective mind: despair.

Coaches Jim Montgomery of the Stars, and Craig Berube, Acting Coach of the Blues, repeated the same incantation: the other team was more desperate, that's why they won the match. We must be more desperate.

Despair is a strange trait to want, often with a stench of fear, anxiety, nervousness or discomfort. But it's something that has been included in the pre-game message of captain Jamie Benn in Dallas.

After the morning skating session on Friday, the Stars gathered in the center of the ice and Benn went to his teammates. From the 14th row of the Enterprise Center, only one word was clearly audible and Benn certainly wanted his team to play with. Despair.

The Stars do not panic often in their attempts for the playoffs, to beat Nashville and to compete with St. Louis. So, what is the border between despair and panic?

"I guess for me, the difference is despair, it's that you're in the moment," Montgomery said before the fifth game. "There is a puck between you and me and it will be my puck You will get your puck Panic is, oh my God, I think you could beat me there It's just a state of different spirit for us. "

Thanks to a bit of despair and a lot of Bishop, the Stars can close the blues with an extra victory.

"You have to go back and you have to play your game," said Bishop. "It's the hardest thing to win, we know they're going to have their best game, we have to have ours."