St. Louis Blues Troy Brouwer dives to knock the puck away from San Jose Sharks Brent Burns in the first period at the Scottrade Center in St. Louis on May 17, 2016. UPI/Robert Cornforth
San Jose defenseman Brett Burns scored twice on the power-play and goalie Martin Jones made 26 saves as the Sharks beat the Blues 4-0 on Tuesday night in St. Louis to even up the Western Conference Finals at 1-1.
All we’ve heard from the Blues in this series is needing to stay out of the penalty box. They were fearful of San Jose’s potent power-play. After killing a perfect 3-for-3 in game one, the Blues penalty kill unit allowed two goals by Burns when they gave San Jose the man advantage.
The Blues were sloppy and undisciplined. Troy Brouwer was called for slashing and captain David Backes took a tripping penalty in the first period, Steve Ott was called for interference in the second and defenseman Jay Bouwmeester was sent off for slashing Joe Thornton out of frustration in the third. Brouwer took another slashing penalty in the third.
The Sharks took a 1-0 lead early after Tommy Wingels scored on a wrist shot after taking a pass from Dainius Zubrus, just 2:07 into the game. Zubrus, who had a tryout with the Blues in the October, later scored an empty-net goal.
The Sharks took a 2-0 lead at 7:04 of the second period when Joe Pavelski passed to Burns who scored from the left circle on a one-timer. Burns’ second power-play goal came was a slap shot from the left circle at 11:58 of the third gave the Sharks a 3-0 lead.
Both power-play goals came after penalties from Brouwer.
Game 4 is Thursday night in San Jose.