This Day in St. Louis Sports History: April 14

April 14, 2012: St. Louis Blues defeat San Jose Sharks 3-0 in Game 2 of first-round playoff series

On this day three years ago, the St. Louis Blues came away with a momentum-building 3-0 victory over the San Jose Sharks in the first round of the 2012 NHL Stanley Cup Playoffs. After the Blues had lost Game 1 of the series 3-2 to the Sharks in double overtime, the Game 2 win sparked the Blues to a powerful run throughout the rest of the series, as the Blues would win four straight games to take the series in five. The victory over the Sharks was the Blues’ last first-round series victory to date, and they went on to lose to the Los Angeles Kings in the second round of the 2012 playoffs.

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Vladimir Sobotka, David Backes, and Alex Pietrangelo contributed goals in a dominant effort for the Blues. T.J. Oshie paced the offense with two assists.

The game was extremely heated, as 34 penalties were issued among the two teams for a total of 132 penalty minutes. There was a massive brawl at the conclusion of the third period that resulted in game misconducts for the Sharks’ Douglas Murray and Justin Braun and the Blues’ Barret Jackman, Roman Polak, and Vladimir Sobotka.

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Unfortunately, the biggest lasting impact from the game may have come because of goaltender Jaroslav Halak‘s injury in the early second period. Halak, who suffered an ankle injury, ended up missing the rest of the postseason. Brian Elliott, who had been a first-time All-Star earlier in the season, took over for Halak, but he wasn’t exactly equipped for the challenge. Seeing the most extensive playoff action of his career, Elliott went 3-4 with a .904 save percentage and a 2.37 goals against average. Elliott ended up melting down so badly in Game 2 of the second round series against the Kings that Jake Allen was forced to make his NHL debut in relief of Elliott.

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