Blues top Preds, avoid elimination
Caps desperate to turn things around
ST. LOUIS — Dmitrij Jaskin scored in his first playoff game this season and Jaden Schwartz got the game-winner as the St. Louis Blues topped the Nashville Predators 2-1 on Friday night to stay alive in their second-round series.
Schwartz scored 25 seconds into the third on a rebound off a Colton Parayko shot, giving St. Louis a 2-1 lead. Schwartz has a team-high four postseason goals.
Jake Allen made 21 saves for the Blues, who had dropped two in a row.
James Neal scored for the Predators, and Pekka Rinne made 30 saves. Game 6 is in Nashville on Sunday.
Jaskin put the Blues in front at 5:43 of the second period, banging home a rebound off an Alex Pietrangelo shot. It was Jaskin’s second career playoff goal.
Jaskin was inserted into the lineup in place of Alexander Steen, who was sidelined with a lower-body injury. He had just one goal in 51 games this season.
Neal tied it with Nashville enjoying a two-man advantage with 6:10 left in the second. The power play was set up when Pietrangelo and Patrik Berglund both took minors with 7:19 left.
The Blues managed just one shot on goal, a 45-footer by Pietrangelo, during more than four straight minutes of powerplay time between the first and second periods, including 1:50 of a 5-on-3 opportunity.
Mike Fisher had three blocks for the Predators — all on Vladimir Tarasenko — during the Blues’ two-man advantage. St. Louis is a league-worst 2-for-28 on the power play in the postseason.
PENGUINS-CAPITALS: Alex Ovechkin is Washington’s thirdline left winger as they face elimination against the Pittsburgh Penguins.
At least, that is what coach Barry Trotz did in practice Friday as the Capitals, down 3-1 in their second-round series, prepared for today’s Game 5 in Washington. The Penguins could be getting Sidney Crosby back from a concussion, too, but the Caps were focused on their own problems.
From Ovechkin to goaltender Braden Holtby and beyond, the Capitals need substantial changes to happen to turn the series around and force a Game 6. Whether their star stays buried on the third line is up to Trotz, but he has called out his top players since losing Game 4.
“(Ovechkin has) got to respond this next game and be a difference maker for us,” Trotz said. “We need our top players to be the best players and that goes (for) everybody from our goaltender right through our lineup, forwards and defense.
Trotz said moving Ovechkin down the lineup and replacing him with Andre Burakovsky was a way to spread out offensive threats, but it’s a drastic change staring down elimination.
“I have to do better,” Ovechkin said. “If I have a chance to do something, I have to do it.”
Knocking Ovechkin down to the third line with Lars Eller and Tom Wilson could blow up in the Capitals’ face. But that wasn’t a thought inside the locker room on the eve of a big elimination game.
“It could be good or it could be great,” Eller said of Ovechkin’s move. “We’ve got every reason to make it work.”