Unexpected walk of the Blues about to end with a thud | St. Louis Blues

"You have to win or go home, as simple as that," said Jaden Schwartz. "The level of desperation must be the highest of all time, we have to play our best game and we are confident to go there (to Dallas)."

The home rematch that the Blues desperately needed after Wednesday's 4-2 loss to Dallas never materialized. The Blues led 2-0 after two periods, but they could not quite recreate the Manitoba Miracle.

They were also led 2-0 after two periods in that same period – the fifth game of a series in Winnipeg also tied two games apiece. They rallied on the road to win a spectacular 3-2 win in the same event, returning the series.

Not so Friday, though they came closer to Schwartz 'goal in the third period, reducing Dallas ahead to 2-1 and energizing a crowd of 18,542 who spent part of the match in boo the home team. Alas, there was no escape to Enterprise for the Blues.

Dallas goalkeeper Ben Bishop, the former product of Blue and Chaminade College Prep, was excellent in blocking 38 of 39 Blues shots. That tied a playoff record in Dallas for stops in a regular game.

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

It was difficult to discuss this point, and Craig Berube did not do it.

"He played a big game," said Bérubé. "Our goalkeeper also kept us and played a good game, we made a lot of big saves, both goalkeepers played well and we need to find a way to get more goals."

Jordan Binnington kept the Blues in the game by stopping many breakaways in Dallas.

"I think he stopped four breakaways and two against two, so we could have extended the lead, but we could not do it," said Montgomery.

Indeed, it could easily have been, say, 4-1 in Dallas without the brilliant magic of Binnington.

Again, even with all these backups of Bishop, he left a lot of rebounds to take. But for one reason or another, the Blues could not have a lot of them. They just did not have a lot of net in front of them.

"We just have to get in deeper," Schwartz said. "The pucks lay there, you just have to find a way to get inside, take the body position and have a little more traffic."

"There were a few pucks between his legs that we simply could not reach," Alex Pietrangelo said. "I think we can be a little more aggressive in front of him."

The Blues' power play was weak for most of the game. They managed to get only five shots with the man advantage against the elite unit with penalty elimination. Not good enough. For the series, the Stars killed 14 of the Blues' 16 power games – 87.5%.

"Escapes," said Brayden Schenn. "I do not think we are entering the zone as well as we can, it makes things harder than we are, and we are sort of in a difficult position.

"I think the execution needs to be much better.As soon as the run will start, then the swagger will come, the trust will come and it is at that moment that we will start to have chances. "

The Blues are suddenly running out of time to regain their courage. They have now lost four of six this post-season at Enterprise Center. The skater advantage they have accumulated in the last three months of the regular season has disappeared.

Pulling from behind 2-0 early in the third period, Bérubé put his lines in a blender. He went with Schwartz-Schenn-Vladimir Tarasenko on a line. Robby Fabbri-Ryan O & # 39; Reilly-David Perron on another.

The fourth line was composed of Oskar Sundqvist-Ivan Barbashev-Alexander Steen. This meant that the only line unchanged was the third: Pat Maroon-Tyler Bozak-Robert Thomas.

Despite the changes, the Blues seemed hesitant, maybe even a little tight, early in the period. But then Pietrangelo sent a far harmless shot at Bishop. Bishop was invaded by a Thomas who rushed and smothered his attempt at cleaning up.

The puck found its way to Schwartz who beat Bishop near the goal at 8:26 to make it a 2-1 game. A crowd that was hoisting a few seconds earlier burst with joy. Before you know it, instead of booing, it was "Let's go blues!" in the company.

It was Schwartz's seventh goal in the playoffs. During the regular season, he scored his seventh goal on March 12th. The Blues maintained the pressure after this penalty, inflicting a penalty on Jamie Benn for hitting Schenn at 11:13.

The Blues did nothing on the power play, but with only 4:14 to play, Sundqvist had a great opportunity to tie the game, maneuvering in front of the Dallas net and allowing Bishop 's. install on the ice. Bishop was defeated, but Sundqvist could not lift his shot over the goalkeeper's pads.

"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."

It was the last best chance of the Blues. They pulled out Binnington one minute from the end and finished the game buzzing around Bishop, unable to finish. As a result, they are almost finished for the 2018-19 season.

"We played a pretty solid game, I have to say it," said Schenn. "I think the guys were physical, blocking the shots, doing what it takes to try to win in all (possible) ways." The series are tough. </ P> <p> It's a game of mistakes We have not really made any major mistakes on their goals, but I guess it's big enough that they end up at the bottom of the net. "

Just 2:42 from the start of the game, Jason Spezza, left alone in front, sent a shot from the roof at Binnington after a pass from Tyler Seguin behind the net. The goal was scored just seconds after Binnington pushed Mattias Janmark to a 2-1 break a few seconds earlier.

Esa Lindell's first goal in the playoffs at 6:13 of the second goal was 2-0. Once again, the Blues had problems with the Dallas transition game, with the Blues backing up, then Lindell's backhand bouncing off Jay Bouwmeester and deflecting past Binnington.