Blues hang on to beat Sharks in Game 1
ST. LOUIS -- Jori Lehtera scored an unassisted goal midway through the second period to break a 1-1 tie and the St. Louis Blues hung on for a 2-1 win Sunday night in Game 1 of the Western Conference final vs. the San Jose Sharks.
Brian Elliott stopped 31 of 32 shots, including all 16 shots in the second period, when they out-shot the Blues 16-5. For the game, the Sharks out-shot the Blues 33-23. He also made several big saves in the final two minutes after San Jose pulled goalie Martin Jones for an extra attacker.
Lehtera scored the only goal of the period at 9:15 when he intercepted a pass from Brent Burns in the neutral zone and fired a shot past Jones on only the second shot of the period by the Blues. It was only his second goal in 15 playoff games this season.
The Blues, playing in the conference final for the first time since 2001, scored the game's first goal at 15:04 of the opening period on a power-play. David Backes deflected a shot by Kevin Shattenkirk past Jones for his seventh goal of the playoffs.
The goal came while Logan Couture was serving a minor penalty for tripping Robby Fabbri.
Patrick Berglund had appeared to put the Blues in front earlier in the period, but the goal was waived off because of goalie interference. The call was confirmed after a video review. It was the third time in the playoffs the Blues had an apparent goal disallowed, the first two coming on coach's challenges in the opening two rounds that the play was offsides.
Just 34 seconds after Backes' goal, the Sharks tied the game on Tomas Hertl's deflection of a shot by Burns that got past Elliott, his third goal of the playoffs.
One of Elliott's best saves after that came on Joe Pavelski, his former teammate at the University of Wisconsin, in the second period. He also made a sliding save of a shot by Patrick Marleau as the Blues killed off a San Jose power-play in the third period.
Game 2 of the best-of-seven series will be Tuesday night in St. Louis.
NOTES: Only three St. Louis players have experience in a conference final -- RW Troy Brouwer, RW Steve Ott and LW Scottie Upshall. Brouwer played for the Chicago Blackhawks in 2009 and 2010, Ott for the Dallas Stars in 2008 and Upshall for the Philadelphia Flyers in 2009. The only one who has won a Stanley Cup is Brouwer ... C Logan Couture, LW Patrick Marleau, RW Joe Pavelski, C Joe Thornton and D Marc-Edouard Vlasic played for the Sharks in their trips to the conference finals in 2010 and 2011. ... The only San Jose player who has been in a Stanley Cup final is LW Dainius Zubrus, who lost with the Flyers in 1997 and the New Jersey Devils in 2012 . ... LW Matt Nieto, who missed the Sharks' Game 7 win in the second round because of an undisclosed injury, participated in the morning skate. Coach Peter DeBoer said Nieto probably will be available at some point during this series.