Stars at Blues Round Two, Game Two Preview: Keep up the pressure

Thursday night was a big win for the St. Louis Blues, especially Vladimir Tarasenko. Tarasenko netted two goals, one on the power play, ending a slow five on five start to the series for him. However, the Blues let the Stars back into the game with a power-play goal from Jamie Benn with just under three minutes on the clock, and this was enough of a red flag for the team to promise to play better tonight.

It’s rare that you see a NHL team who has just won a playoff game recognize their flaws, but the fact that the Blues are mature enough to do so speaks volumes to not just the accountability in the locker room but to the standards kept by Jack Adams’ nominee Craig Berube.

It also speaks to the fact that allowing 17 goals in the third period of a playoff game isn’t a good idea. The Blues only allowed 12 shots from the previous two periods combined; luckily Jordan Binnington was up to the shellacking or else the game could’ve ended very differently.

Aside from Benn’s goal on the power-play, the Blues did a solid job of hamstring the Stars’ top offensive players. Benn, Tyler Seguin, and Alexander Radulov had six shots on goal. Five of those shots came from Seguin.

Regardless of how, the Blues are up 1-0 in the series and have a chance this afternoon to send it back to Dallas up by two. With a Stars team this accustomed to fighting to get what they want, an insurance win would be a good idea. You’ll be able to see that insurance win at 2:00 Central on NBC, which means no random blackout during on-line streaming or worrying about what channel the first 10 minutes of the game is on.