All season the St. Louis Blues have been getting attention for their smothering defensive play and outstanding goaltending. Those two strengths were still on display for the most part on Monday night in San Jose (for the first 57 minutes, anyway), but the difference in their 4-3 win against the Sharks came down to a surprisingly dominant performance by their power play.The Blues were able convert on three of their four attempts on the man advantage, with Andy McDonald being the biggest star of the game finishing with a goal and two assists. Carlo Coliacovo also had a huge night for the Blues being credited with three assists.
St. Louis did get a bit of a scare over the final three minutes as the Sharks put together a furious late rally, scoring a pair of goals in the closing minutes to pull to within one. And they even managed to get one final shot just before the clock ran out, but in the end it proved to be too little, too late.
Something to build on for Game 4? Perhaps, but the Blues seemed to be the better team for nearly the entire night.
Road teams still rule: Along with the Blues, the Boston Bruins and Rangers" data-canon="New York Islanders" data-type="SPORTS_OBJECT_TEAM" id="shortcode0"> were also winners on Monday which made road teams a perfect 3-0 for the night. Visitors are now 14-8 this postseason, and it was also the second night over the past week that every home team came out on the losing end. By the end of the playoffs we imagine this will probably balance out a bit, but it's still interesting to see road teams dominating early on.
Save of the night: The Senators lost on Monday, but it's hard to blame goaltender Craig Anderson. He only surrendered one goal, and that's usually enough to get your team a win.
Unfortunately for the Senators, Henrik Lundqvist was at the other end of the ice and playing one of his best games of the season to pretty much steal it for the Rangers. Still, the save of the night has to go to Anderson for this robbery midway through the second period.
This looked like it could have been a game-changing moment for Ottawa, but it simply wasn't meant to be on this night.
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