Hochman: Parayko's strong shot changed everything for the sixth match, and maybe more | Benjamin Hochman

It's the shot that changed everything.

The game. The series. The narrator. Hockey history?

Match 6 was suffocating. In the face of elimination, the Blues led 2-1, but the Dallas crowd looked more like a stuffed hootenise, a soundtrack of the return. But while only 12:27 was left in the third period, Parayko's heat-seeking slid into the crowd and injured goalkeeper Ben Bishop.

Stung, like a boxer, Bishop leaned forward and fell back onto the ice. The Blues quickly scored with the goal unoccupied.

Parayko stunned the accursed guardian.

Jaden Schwartz's goal gave his team a 3-1 lead. Bishop, apparently touched on the left collarbone, remained in the game. Thirty-three seconds later, the Blues scored again. Then the Dallas coach fired him, even though Bishop was supposed to be OK after the match.

Everything changed after this shot hit.

We will talk about it on Clark Avenue on Tuesday night.

And we could talk about it in June, during a parade on Market Street.

In another great match 6 of St. Louis against the Dallas team, it was David Freese, of Neftali Feliz. . . and Sunday, in the sixth match of the semifinals of the conference, it was Colton Parayko and Ben Bishop. Cinco de Mayo – Bishop's Sink. It was the most important thing in Parayko's life, but he did not even score.

"Obviously you are in the slot, you will try to shoot to score," said Parayko after the Blues 4-1 victory. "I was just trying to find a place for their first guy. I was shooting to score. I'm never here to hurt anyone. "

I'm never here to hurt anyonehe said, as if it were a possibility he could be, that it was in the realm of possibility, that he could somehow invent the idea of ​​drawing so strong and precise that he would have hit the star on the ice, allowing a teammate to score.

But that's the strength of the shot Parayko, framed during the festivities of the Winter Classic 2017 at 104 mph. In the rarest moments – and the most important – when everything goes well, it can change the course of a tight match. Or, put a pin in it.

"Both teams were checking, both teams had back-checkers ahead," Parayko said about Match 6, until his shot and goal from Schwartz. "Everyone was tight, the games were hard to do. Everyone was above their checks. It's hard to generate things when both teams play like that. "

Naturally, the Stars thought that the goal should not have happened. When Parayko threw Bishop out on the ice, Alexander Steen of the Blues recovered the rebound and sent him back to the net, sent back by Schwartz for the goal. It took four seconds, no whistle.

"He is down, it should be a whistle," said Dallas defender John Klingberg. "It's the rule, but we can not change anything yet."

But that's not the rule. Rule 8: 1 explains that "when a player is injured and can no longer continue to play or go to his bench, the game shall not be stopped until the injured player's team is in possession of the puck ".

Dallas never had the puck.

Kay Whitmore is the supervisor of the NHL series at Blues-Stars. A pool reporter asked Whitmore if the discretion of the whistle is allowed for a goalkeeper, if the goalkeeper is down and in danger and can not protect himself?

"Not in this situation," said Whitmore. "The chance to score is imminent and it happened bang-bang and the puck in the net. It was not a long period of time. But the rule is quite clear: in this situation, they will not kill (the game). As soon as his team had possession, they would have killed him immediately. It happens all the time. But in this situation, they did not consider it serious enough to kill him immediately. "

Parayko, the dominant defenseman, played extremely well during most of the season. But from the press on the Blues bench, some people wonder why he does not draw more.

"We tell him a lot, actually," teammate Oskar Sundqvist said. "Keep pulling the puck. That's where good things happen and what's going on today. "

Of course, his striking shot gives him a great reward, but also a high risk: if he is blocked or misses the goal, he may quickly ricochet in the wrong direction, which will result in a goal opportunity on the other end.

But Sunday afternoon, Parayko chose his place and his shot.

"A deadly bomb," said teammate Carl Gunnarsson.

This unpredictable season started with a different coach. The Blues have lost a lot, have a new coach, a little more and have lost confidence in their goalkeeper. The Blues started to find their rhythm and gave a goalkeeper a chance.

Last in points on January 2, the Blues qualified for the playoffs and won a playoff round with Schwartz's decisive goal in Game 5. . . and his hat trick in Game 6.

In the second game 6 of the Blues, it was Schwartz who scored again the big goal. But the decisive moment was actually the last rescue of Bishop by night.