ST. LOUIS (AP) Filip Zadina and Mikael Granlund scored goals just 27 seconds apart and the San Jose Sharks dealt a damaging blow to the St. Louis Bluesā slim playoff chances with a 4-0 win on Saturday night.
Mackenzie Blackwood made 35 saves for San Jose, which has the worst record in the NHL and snapped a nine-game winless streak with its first victory since March 9.
āItās a good feeling to win a hockey game,ā Granlund said. āObviously, we havenāt been able to have that feeling too much this season, so weāll take every win there is.ā
Luke Kunin also scored and Jan Rutta added an empty-net goal for the Sharks, who beat St. Louis for the second time in as many tries this season. It was Blackwoodās 10th career shutout and second this season.
āObviously the guys, you know, theyāre battling hard and pushing, pushing and skating right to the end,ā Blackwood said. āAnd last night or the other day didnāt really go our way. We played hard in the last two periods, but we didnāt get the bounces and tonight we did. So, you know, itās nice to get rewarded for that.ā
Joel Hofer made 16 saves for the Blues, who were 7-1-1 in the last nine games. Their loss wrapped up a playoff spot for Vancouver.
The Blues entered play Saturday five points behind Los Angeles for the final wild card in the Western Conference. The Kings, who have a game in hand on St. Louis, played at Calgary later Saturday.
San Jose took control with a dominant second period, outshooting St. Louis 12-3 and scoring three times.
āThatās twice against them. Columbus and Chicago and the good teams donāt do that,ā Blues captain Brayden Schenn said. āThatās how you get into the playoffs, is by beating those teams. Weāve just been shooting ourselves in the foot with tough losses like that.ā
Zadina capitalized on a turnover by Blues forward Zack Bolduc to break the scoreless tie at 8:30 of the second. Zadina snapped an eight-game scoring drought after hitting the post on a tip earlier in the period.
Granlund made it 2-0 seconds later, extending his points streak to four games by pouncing on the rebound of Fabian Zetterlundās shot that bounced behind Hofer.
Kunin added to the lead with his ninth goal of the season with 2:02 left in the second. Kunin, a St. Louis native, was playing in front of a large amount of family and friends.
āRolling puck, just threw it on net,ā Kunin said. āYou know, you always try to shoot those rollers, you donāt know how theyāre going to come off. But yeah, itās pretty cool always to get one you know with a lot of friends and family in the building.ā
Blackwood kept the game scoreless in the early going despite the Blues outshooting the Sharks 11-3 in the first period. Blackwood got his pad on Schennās chance after he got behind the San Jose defense and he made saves on point-blank chances for Brandon Saad and Colton Parayko.
āHe was huge for us,ā Granlund said. āThe first period especially, he kept us alive, and you know, when the goalie can do that, that gives a lot of energy for a team and then we got better as the game went on in the second period and obviously weāre able to close it out.ā
The Sharks had just 39 seconds of offensive zone possession in the first.
āWe really were on our heels in the first period,ā David Quinn said. āBlacky stood tall, gave us a chance and I really thought we got our wits about us and a much better second period and then obviously weāre opportunistic as well with our chances.ā
Blackwood came up big again in the third, turning away 21 shots as the Blues tried to mount a rally.
āThereās no excuses to be made,ā Blues interim coach Drew Bannister said. āWe just have to be better. We started the way we wanted to start. We have to be able to follow that up and have momentum going into the second. Thereās no excuses at all for what happened in the second and how we fell asleep.ā
UP NEXT
Sharks: Host Seattle on Monday night.
Blues: Host Edmonton on Monday night.
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