After a combined 88 penalty minutes at the end of Game 2, many fans expected more chaos in Game 3 between the Blues and Sharks Monday night at HP Pavilion.
But both clubs underscored the importance of staying disciplined and winning a pivotal game in a 1-1 series.
"Our goal is to win, first and foremost," Sharks defenseman Dan Boyle said. "I think that's the best payback we can have, sending these guys home. And I'm sure they're thinking the same thing."
Neither team engaged in the much-anticipated rough-housing Monday, but the Blues were the more focused club, claiming a 4-3 victory over the Sharks, registering three power-play goals.
The Blues, however, let a 4-1 lead disintegrate in the final 3 minutes 2 seconds, as San Jose's Logan Couture and Colin White scored to make the closing moments dicey. But the club held on, taking a 2-1 lead in the series.
"This isn't taking anything from the win, but we can play a lot better than we did and we will play a lot better," Hitchcock said.
Game 4 is set for Thursday at HP Pavilion, and with 48 hours between games, one wouldn't expect the Sharks to carry over any momentum from their late surge Monday. Still, the Blues were disappointed, defenseman Carlo Colaiacovo said.
"We all feel ecstatic that we got the win, but a lot of us are pretty upset by the way we finished," he said. "You can't let a team like that get any life. You can't let a team like scratch and claw, especially when we played so well for 55 minutes of the game. But at the end of the day, we battled hard and we found a way to win. Our special teams were huge. We'll learn from that. It's a learning thing for us and we'll be better at it next game."
Berglund impressed by special-teams play
The Blues' power play went three for four Monday with goals by Patrik Berglund, Alex Steen and Jason Arnott against the Sharks' 29th-ranked penalty-killing unit.
"We played great, and on the power play," Berglund said. "That's how we created some momentum today. It's really good that the pucks are bouncing our way on the power play. We've been struggling, so obviously we're coming out big with it right now."
G Jaroslav Halak did not play in Monday's game, sitting out with an ankle injury suffered in Game 2. Halak didn't skate either Monday, leaving the impression that he could also be unavailable for Game 4 on Thursday. "We'll just see how he feels (Tuesday), see if we're going to get him back in a short period of time here," Blues coach Ken Hitchcock said. "We're not really sure. Getting better quickly, but obviously not enough to skate."
"You don't expect the lineup to change when you win, but we're going into San Jose, their barn, and he wanted to get me back in there. I'm going to take it and run with it. I get a chance to go in there and redeem myself." RW Chris Stewart on Ken Hitchcock's decision to insert him into the lineup for Game 3 Monday.
