The Blues took game 3 by a score of 3-2 over the Blackhawks in another hotly contested game. A video recap of the game can be seen
here . The Blues were able to rally in the third period, handing the Blackhawks their first regulation defeat when leading after 2 periods since game 2 of the 2014 Western Conference finals, as series they went on to lose to the Los Angeles Kings. The Blues hope that is a better omen than the Blues 2-1 series lead in 2014.
The rally was directly the result of a fortuitous bounce off the ice on a Patrick Berglund deflected shot and a beautiful Jaden Schwartz power play goal that was the result of a careless double minor penalty from Patrick Kane. This makes two games in a row that each team’s best forward took a bad penalty that led to a game changing power play goal against. I expect Kane and Tarasenko will not make similar mistakes tonight in game 4 at the United Center. Anyway, let’s look at how the Blues performed relative to Jammer’s Keys.
Exposing and taking advantage of the Hawks bottom D Pairings
The Blues were able to score with Michael Rozsival on the ice, leaving him as a -1 for the game. Unfortunately, it is hard to take full advantage of Rozsival and Viktor Svedberg when they play less than 21 minutes o fh te game. Svedberg almost had as many PIMs (4) as minutes played (5). Both did have two blocked shots in their limited time.
Timely Goaltending
The Blues again got this in spades from Brian Elliott and help from the Blues defensemen who blocked 12 shots. Elliott stopped 44 of 46 shots including 23 in the second period. Corey Crawford also played well, stopping 33 of 36 including a remarkable glove save on Jori Lehtera. The goalies combined to stop 67 of 69 even strength shots.
Rookies
The Blues rookies continue to play a significant role. Robby Fabbri added 2 assists in under 10 minutes of ice time while Colton Parayko added a goal, three shots on goal, a blocked shot and three hits in over 18 minutes of playing time. Joel Edmundson was lucky not to get an extra minor in his altercation with Andrew Shaw and saw his ice time reduced to a little over 8 minutes.
Time on Ice Notes from game three
Did anyone else notice that Hammer only had 19:06 of playing time and was at least 5 minutes less than TVR, Keith and Seabrook and that he only had 3:23 more than Rozsival? Also, TVR had 44 seconds more ice time than Seabrook. On the forward side, Panik, Weise and TT only combined for 23 minutes of ice time. For the Blues, Brodziak, Ott, and Fabbri combined for 24:29
Quotes after game three
Hitchcock: “We've come back to many times. It just doesn't seem to be a big deal with this group. We've got a lot of resiliency in us. The season made us do that. We had no choice.”
Hitchcock: “Gonna be a really long serious. Touch battle for both teams. Feels very much like a final. Both teams laying it all there. Every game has been up for grabs. No quit in either team.” “We need everything going for us to beat this team. They are a great hockey team. We got a lot of guys that were in full participation mode today.”
Hitchcock: ”We are dealing with fire right now. We got to find a way to even out the penalties so we are not on our heels because they get a lot of momentum off the powerplay and they got a lot early in the game because of it.”
Hitchcock: On their 24 shot 2nd period - "that's how many shots they had? Wow. That's pretty good." Perhaps this is why he compared the team to the Washington Generals when defending the PAK line a few times.
Hitchcock: "I think each game has gotten more and more intense. The animosity and the anger has gotten to a very high level now" and "history says they can go to a level nobody else can play at, but I know we've got more in us."
Hitchcock: "We think in this game, we’re going to have to be at our absolutely best."
Hitchcock - on Ott- “He's been hounding me forever. He just wore me down. He's such a pain. I just well might as well go play you know because I am tired of listening to you bark in my ear all the time.”
Ott later: "I've got to get him back, he's running me right now. Hitch is pretty witty, he's tough to knock off his feet.
Schwartz: “Even with them getting the win in Game 2, that didn’t affect us. We wanted to come out and execute again today.”
Schwartz - "Hungry effort by us. Never say die attitude. They got some momentum early, [we] battled back. Two third period goals is huge." " Both goalies were awesome today again."
Backes - "We haven't waivered from our game and belief system.....This series isn't over. it's gonna be a heck of a grind. Every game is going to be one goal, tight checking, every play counts.”
Q – “All three games could have gone each way. Margin of error is very limited, minimal” and “[I’m] Looking for some more out of some guys.”
Lineup changes
Much to “gramps” chagrin and to the ire of most of the Hawks fans on hockeybuzz.com, reports are that David Rundblad will draw back into the lineup for Viktor Svedberg. Given that Rundblad is likely to only see 6 minutes or so of ice time, I’m not how much of an impact this will really have.
Much to the concern of a number of Blues fans, Alexander Steen will move to replace Robbi Fabbri on Paul Stastny and Troy Brouwer’s line, leaving Patrick Berglund or David Backes to play center. Reports are that Berglund will start at center. The good news is that Steen’s awful faceoff play won’t be seen. His winning percentages have been between 14% and 29%.
Around the league news
- Reports are Frederick Andersen was off the ice first, suggesting he will start for the Ducks tonight.
- Rumors are that Holtby suffered a leg injury at practice today and left the ice but that it isn’t too serious.
- Dangerous hits and plays abound in this playoffs – Perry and Kesler with sticks around the goalie’s cage, Abdelkader’s MMA punching, and boardings like that of Orlov. (no time to link them all).
- Fans tossing bracelets onto the ice last night in Philadelphia. NY Rangers giving out bracelets tonight. Anyone else think this could end poorly? Blues fans shouldn’t cast too many stones as I saw a number of adult beverage items thrown onto the ice last Friday night.
- How close is the west? Every game in all of the series except the Stars/Wild have been 1 goal games if you throw out empty net goals.
- In the Stars/Wild series, 2 of the 3 have been 1 goal games which makes 11 of 12 games being essentially 1 goal games.
- In the east, only 4 of the 11 games have been 1 goal games (ignoring empty net goals).
It’s a great day for hockey.
St Louis Blues Blogger • 
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