‘Impressive’ Blues run riot to leave Stars disappointed
DALLAS: The St Louis Blues advanced to their first Western Conference final since 2001 by winning their second Game Seven of the 2016 play-offs with a 6-1 rout of the Dallas Stars.
Troy Brouwer, Robby Fabbri and Paul Stastny each had three points and Brian Elliott stopped 31 of 32 shots for the Blues who eliminated the Stars four games to three.
Patrik Berglund also had two points and Jori Lehtera added two assists on Wednesday at American Airlines Center arena in Dallas.
The Blues will face the winners of Game Seven between San Jose and Nashville this morning Thai time with the NHL semifinals scheduled to begin tomorrow.
St Louis coach Ken Hitchcock is now 5-2 in Game Sevens while Dallas coach Lindy Ruff falls to 0-4.
“To play in the conference final, I know as a coach here in Dallas I took it for granted and it was a big mistake,” said Blues coach Ken Hitchcock, who used to coach the Stars.
“Sometimes you can play your whole career and not play in the conference final, so it’s pretty impressive.”
The Blues also beat the defending champions Chicago Blackhawks in Game Seven in the first round of the playoffs.
“I think that [it’s] a huge disappointment,” Ruff said. “We had good energy, but it’s a tough way to end [your season].”
Patrick Eaves scored the lone goal for Dallas, breaking the shut-out early in the third period.
Antti Niemi stopped eight of 10 shots in relief of Kari Lehtonen, who was pulled from the contest after stopping just five of eight shots.
“When you get behind the eight ball, it’s tough,” Dallas captain Jamie Benn said. “It’s obviously not the start we wanted. We’re going to win as a team and lose as a team.”
David Backes made it 4-0 in the second with his sixth goal of the play-offs for St Louis. Berglund set Backes up by flipping the puck just over the Dallas blue line from inside the neutral zone. Backes collected it inside the Dallas zone and beat Niemi with a wrist shot that luckily bounced off the far post.
Brouwer made it 5-0 with his fifth goal of the play-offs with 5:54 minutes remaining in the second period. Brouwer’s wrist shot from the far post capped a well-executed two-on-one rush by the Blues.
Vladimir Tarasenko scored an emptynet goal with 4:40 minutes remaining to make it 6-1.