St. Louis Blues goaltender Brian Elliott ends up in his own goal unable to reach the puck off the stick of Dallas Stars Vernon Fiddler in the first period of Game Six of the NHL Playoffs at the Scottrade Center in St. Louis on May 9, 2016. Dallas scored three times in the first period and Elliott was replaced. Photo by Bill Greenblatt/UPI
Mattias Janmark and Vernon Fiddler scored 20 seconds apart, and Jason Spezza had a power-play goal at 16:49 as the Dallas Stars scored three, first period goals on Brian Elliott in seven shots. Elliott was pulled, the Blues put together a furious rally over the final 40 minutes, but lost 3-2. The Stars force a deciding Game 7 on Wednesday night in Dallas.
“We’ve been down 2-0 a million times this year,” said Blues coach Ken Hitchcock. “The third goal is the one that hurt us.”
Elliott is a big reason the Blues have gotten this far, but Monday night it was Kari Lehtonen who came up big for the Stars. He made 35 saves, several from up close and his final save on Blues left winger Jaden Schwartz in the closing seconds kept this game from going to overtime. The Blues took 75 shots but missed the net 19 times.
“We were playing for our lives tonight,” said Jason Spezza, who ended up with the game winning goal. “We were assertive. We didn’t want to go home today. Then they get down, and they’re coming at us. You hunker down, block shots, and do a good job being desperate.”
Alexander Steen made it a 3-1 game in the second, when he banged home a rebound after Robert Bortuzzo’s shot deflected off the right pad of Lehtonen. Bortuzzo was a late addition to the lineup as Hitchcock looked to add some muscle on the blue line. Patrik Bergland made it a 3-2 game when Jori Lehtera slid a pass between his legs after getting a feed in close from David Backes. Bergland flipped a shot over Lehtonen.
“We certainly had our fair share of chances to tie it up. Now we’re heading back to Dallas,” said Steen.
