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Good but not good enough
Sharks fall to Blues 4-2 in St Louis to wrap up road trip
3/9/2023 - By Mike Lee

The "get to the off-season" tour continued for San Jose, as they wrapped up their 3-game road trip with a deflating 4-2 loss to the St Louis Blues at Enterprise Center on Thursday night. The Sharks did the 2022-23 shuffle, grabbing a lead, then losing in the end. It was the 27th time this season that San Jose held a lead and surrendered it to lose.

The Sharks thought they had scored the game's opening goal 5 minutes in when Evgeny Svechnikov put a puck on net in tight. Svechnikov raised his arms to celebrate but neither referee signaled a goal. Video replay was deemed inconclusive, even though an overhead shot looked as if the puck had cross the line while up on an edge.

Erik Karlsson made sure video replay was unnecessary when he snapped a shot past goaltender Jordan Binnington at 10:23. The Blues tried moving the puck off their own end boards, then Alexander Barabanov intercepted a pass near the left dot. Barabanov found Karlsson on the weak side of the ice with a pass through the slot. Karlsson converted that pass into a 1-0 lead and his 20th goal of the season.

St Louis countered with a goal 2 minutes later when defenseman Torey Krug converted on the rush from the left side. Robert Thomas carried the puck up the right wing and found Krug who trailed on the off wing.

Sammy Blais gave the Blues a 2-1 lead midway through the 2nd period after a turnover by rookie William Eklund. Colton Parayko stripped Eklund at the St Louis blueline, then dove to chip the puck forward to Blais who streaked up the ice undefended. The Blues forward raced in on net and lifted the puck top shelf past Sharks goaltender Kaapo Kahkonen.

Tomas Hertl re-tied the game 4 minutes later. The Czech forward gathered a Barabanov pass in the high slot then fired the puck from 60-feet out, beating Binnington for his 18th goal of the season.

Jakub Vrana made it a 3-2 Blues lead 2:53 into the 3rd period. The Blues moved the puck down low, and put a shot on goal from the doorstep but Kahkonen made the save. The Sharks goaltender had his left skate pinned against the right post, but Vrana made a couple of attempts from outside the pipe. He succeeded by lifting the puck and banking it off the Sharks goaltender as he had one foot across the end line.

The Sharks found the net with 10 minutes to play in regulation but it found its way into the Blues net via a Hertl high stick that negated the tally.

A terrible call on Fabian Zetterlund put the Blues on the power play for the 3rd time in the game at 14:07. St Louis entered the game having converted 2 of their pervious 35 power play chances. Those 2 came against San Jose. This man advantage would net the Blues their 3rd conversion when Thomas punched a shot past Kahkonen to make it a 4-2 game.

Game Notes:

* The Blues wore their retro 90's jerseys. It's the only time this season that St Louis will don the blue, and red sweaters, which is accented with yellow.

* Erik Karlsson set a career high in points with 83 when he scored his 1st period goal. The Defenseman also recorded his 3rd career 20-goal season.

* With his 2 assists, Alexander Barabanov recorded his 8th multi-point game of the season. Barabanov's highest point production of the season came against the Penguins in Pittsburgh on January 28th, when the Russian forward had a goal and 2 assists.

* Sharks head coach David Quinn was informed that he had been assessed a $25,000 fine for his tirade in the loss to the Washington Capitals on Saturday. More than 4 days had passed since the NHL decided to levy the fine.

* With the loss, San Jose has lost their last 8 games against St Louis. This capped a season sweep by the Blues.


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Scoring
1 2 3 T
SJ 1 1 0 2
STL 1 1 2 4
1st period - 1, SJ, Karlsson 20 (Barabanov), 10:23. 2, STL, Krug 6 (Thomas), 12:31.
2nd period - 3, STL, Blais 3 (Parayko), 10:06. 4, SJ, Hertl 18 (Barabanov), 14:31.
3rd period - 5, STL, Vrana 2 (Buchnevich, Kapanen), 2:53. 6, STL, Thomas 16 (Saad, Buchnevich), 15:02, (pp).
Penalties
1st period - Thomas, STL (holding), 0:56; Blais, STL (slashing), 14:15; Barabanov, SJ (slashing), 5:03.
2nd period - Parayko, STL (cross checking), 1:21; Lorentz, SJ (hooking), 6:39; Kapanen, STL (broken stick), 7:13.
3rd period - Zetterlund, SJ (hooking), 14:07; Karlss, SJ (slashing), 17:06.
Goaltending
Shots Saves
SJ - Kahkonen 30 26
STL - Binnington 34 32
Shots On Goal
1 2 3 T
SJ 15 11 8 34
STL 9 9 12 30
Power Play Conversion
SJ 0 of 4
STL 1 of 4
3 Stars of the Game
Robert Thomas
Jordan Binnington
Torey Krug
Attendance
Enterprise Center - 18,096
Officials
Referees: #21 TJ Luxmore, #49 Reid Anderson. Linesmen: #80 Jonathan Deschamps, #61 James Tobias.





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