St. Louis Blues Seek First 2-0 Lead of Postseason vs. San Jose Sharks

After a Game 1 that was tightly-contested but well-controlled by the St. Louis Blues, Game 2 affords the Blues an opportunity to take their first 2-0 lead of the postseason.

It’s safe to say that the St. Louis Blues didn’t deliver the flashiest performance in Game 1 of the Western Conference Finals on Sunday night; they were outshot 32-23 by the San Jose Sharks, they lost the face-off battle 40-30, and they took one more penalty than San Jose did. With that said, the Blues played their typical aggressive style, registering 28 hits compared to San Jose’s 14 and beating the Sharks 10-3 in takeaways, so they were able to shut down a speedy, finesse San Jose club and control the tempo of the game. After 60 hard-fought minutes on Sunday night, the Blues came away with their first Western Conference Finals victory since May 16, 2001, which would have marked exactly 15 years between the two victories had Sunday’s game lasted until after midnight.

The Blues have yet to earn a 2-0 lead this postseason–after winning Game 1, they dropped Game 2 of their first-round series with the Blackhawks, then they lost the opener of their second-round series with the Stars before tying it up in Game 2–so they’ll be looking for their first 2-0 lead of the playoffs on Tuesday night. That’d represent a major advantage for the Blues as they head back to SAP Center (where they won 1-0 in their only appearance there this season on March 22) for Games 3 and 4. As the Sharks have shown during their first two victories, they don’t back down easily no matter the venue, but a 2-0 lead would still be a massive momentum boost for a Blues team that has had to fight for everything all through this postseason, winning both of their first two series in seven games.

Check out the next few pages to see what the Blues and Sharks’ lineups will look like on Tuesday:

Next: Blues Lineup