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Shark tank Blues run away with rout in Game 6
Posted: Monday May 08, 2000 08:14 PM By Al Strachan, SLAM! Sports SAN JOSE, Calif. -- Finally, for the first time in the series, the St. Louis Blues looked like what they are -- the best team in the National Hockey League. At the same time, the San Jose Sharks looked like what they are -- a team that wastes its best talent and barely made the playoffs. Little surprise then that the Blues cruised to a 6-2 victory to send the Western Conference series back to St. Louis for a seventh game tomorrow. That, in itself, is something of an achievement for the Blues, who had been down 3-1 in the series. But they were down 3-1 last year as well and came back to defeat the Phoenix Coyotes. They now are making the most of that experience. "When we went through it last year, the most important game was Game 5," said Scott Young, who led the Blues with a hat trick. "Once you win that a lot of the pressure is on the other team. It was a great experience going through that series last year and we can use that because a lot of the same guys are back." The line of Young, Jochen Hecht and Pierre Turgeon led the way for the Blues yesterday, scoring four of the six goals. With his goal and three assists, Hecht now has 10 points and is tied with Jaromir Jagr of the Pittsburgh Penguins for the playoff scoring lead. "If you play hard and try to win every game," the 22-year-old German said, "things go your way. We're getting the breaks right now." He's half right. Almost everybody in the NHL plays hard and tries to win every game, but they don't always get things to go their way. The breaks, however, have finally shifted to St. Louis for the first time in the series. The Blues felt that they hadn't been out-played by the Sharks in the first four games -- or at least not enough to be down 3-1 -- but in every game the Sharks got a fluke goal. Yesterday, it was the Blues who got the breaks, not so much because of bad bounces, but because of good fortune combined with some shoddy work by San Jose goaltender Steve Shields. As Hecht pointed out: "On the first goal I got a bouncing puck, but I just turned around and shot and it went in the far side. I didn't even know it had gone in until they blew the whistle." Hecht also made a nice play on the Blues' first goal, one which, as is so often the case in hockey, was of paramount importance. It silenced the rabid San Jose crowd, it took a lot of steam out of the Sharks, and it put the Blues in control. Hecht fought off Mike Rathje to make a neat pass to Young, who beat Shields to put the Sharks ahead at 12:31. "When you get off to a good start things are happening for you," St. Louis defenceman Chris Pronger said. "You don't need to adapt because they're the ones that need to adapt. "You try to weather that 10-minute storm at the beginning and if you can do it and then get in front, you're in good shape. But if you're trying to scratch back and claw your way back to even it up, it's tough." Once the Blues got that opening goal, they appeared to be in charge. In the previous game, the Sharks had been down 3-0 and still didn't seem to be out of it. But that was not the case yesterday. In the second period, they seemed to have decided that the fairy-tale run had been nice while it lasted, but it had run its course. The Blues banged in five second-period goals to open a 6-0 lead, and San Jose coach Darryl Sutter glared stoically through the entire barrage, even though Shields was clearly having an off-day. The Sharks' chances of coming back were nil, since skilled players such as Patrick Marleau and Alexander Korolyuk had been scratched from a lineup that included the likes of Ron Sutter, Dave Lowry, Stephane Matteau, Todd Harvey, Tony Granato and Ron Stern. The Sharks did get a goal from Owen Nolan late in the second and one from Bryan Marchment in the third, but they were meaningless. Yet instead of going quietly, the Sharks staged a classless parade to the penalty box. The two referees, Terry Gregson and Stephen Walkom, did a fine job to prevent the pot from boiling over, but even so, it was hardly the kind of performance which would do anything to improve the NHL's ratings on ABC. But there's a Game 7 coming up and that should mean three hours of fine ratings for the networks that carry it. Unless the Sharks fold the tent early again.
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