Blues fall 2-1 to Sharks in shootout
ST. LOUIS — Tomas Hertl scored the only goal in a four-round shootout to give the San Jose Sharks a 2-1 victory over the St. Louis Blues on Wednesday night.
Marcus Sorensen scored the tying goal late in the second period and Martin Jones made 22 saves for the Sharks, who snapped a six-game losing streak to St. Louis that started in the 2019 playoffs.
Jones denied all four Blues shooters in the tiebreaker.
Brayden Schenn scored in his second consecutive game and Jordan Binnington made 37 saves for the Blues.
San Jose appeared to get the game-winner with 11 seconds left in overtime, but the officials quickly waved it off for goaltender interference on Ryan Donato. After a replay review, the call was upheld.
John Leonard almost gave the Sharks the lead, ringing a drive off the post early in the second period.
Instead, Schenn put the Blues on top at 4:27 of the second off Jordan Kyrou‘s feed. It was the first time in four games that St. Louis scored first.
Vince Dunn came close to building on St. Louis’ lead, but he hit the post late in the second.
The Sharks took advantage, tying the game with 2:03 left in the second as Sorensen made a diving poke off Matt Nieto‘s shot to even the game 1-all.
Craig Berube was not happy with the #stlblues‘ effort in their shootout loss to the #SJSharks: “We’ve got a lot of guys that aren’t skating and aren’t competing hard enough.” pic.twitter.com/kPgl9txDgg
— FOX Sports Midwest (@FSMidwest) January 21, 2021
SPECIAL TEAMS
The teams combined to go 0 for 12 on the power play.
St. Louis is scoreless on its first 14 chances with the man advantage this season, while San Jose entered the game second in the NHL, scoring on 45% of its power-play opportunities.
SEASON DEBUTS
Sharks forward Dylan Gambrell was in the lineup for the first time this season. He centered the third line between Leonard and Stefan Noesen.
Blues defenseman Niko Mikkola saw his first action of the season, filling in for Marco Scandella. Mikkola’s defensive partner, Carl Gunnarsson, made his season debut on Monday in place of Robert Bortuzzo, who went on injured reserve with an upper-body injury.
WELCOME BACK
Blues forward Sammy Blais was back in the starting lineup after serving a two-game suspension for a hit on Colorado’s Devon Toews in the season opener. Blais took Kyle Clifford’s spot on the fourth line with Ivan Barbashev and Oskar Sundqvist.
WHAT’S NEXT
Sharks: Continue their season-opening, eight-game road trip by starting a two-game set at Minnesota on Friday night.
Blues: Continue their four-game homestand by hosting the Los Angeles Kings in the first of a two-game set Saturday night.
