SAN JOSE — With points at a premium down the stretch of the NHL season, there’s no time to lament over lost opportunities. So the St. Louis Blues shook off the disappointment of a loss in Anaheim to end the treacherous California trip with two wins in three games.
Vladimir Tarasenko scored two goals to give him 34 on the season and Zach Sanford added his first since joining St. Louis to help the Blues complete a regular season sweep of the San Jose Sharks with a 4-1 victory on Thursday night.
“We asked for a response and we got it,” coach Mike Yeo said. “Last night, it was a close game, but we weren’t really happy with the way things went. We knew that we left something on the table. So we asked for a response today and the guys more than delivered.”
The 2-1 loss in Anaheim on Wednesday is the only loss for St. Louis in the past seven games. But with an early goal by Scottie Upshall setting the tone and Carter Hutton providing a solid night in goal with 19 saves, the Blues remained two points behind Nashville for third place in the Central Division and four points up on Los Angeles for the second wild-card spot.
“You want to get on them early,” Upshall said. “You want to show them you’re here to play and you have your legs. We had a tough game last night, almost came back and tied it late. I like the way we came out and played. We held them to under 20 shots. We peppered their goalie from some good scoring chances. It was a game we needed.”
Marc-Edouard Vlasic scored the lone goal for the Sharks. Aaron Dell made 32 saves.
“I thought we looked tired out there, sluggish, we just didn’t have any jump up front,” forward Logan Couture said. “I think a lot of it was on us.”
San Jose still holds a seven-point lead in the Pacific Division over Anaheim but missed a chance to pass Minnesota for the second most points in the Western Conference with a third loss this season to St. Louis.
The Blues, despite playing the back end of a back-to-back and their third game in four nights, managed to keep the Sharks away from the net for most of the night and allowed only three shots from Sharks forwards in the first 54 minutes.
They took the lead for good when they scored the only goal in the second period. The play started innocently as Jay Bouwmeester took a shot from the boards that deflected behind the net. The puck hit off the backboards and went right to Sanford, who knocked it in for his first goal with St. Louis since being acquired last month from Washington in the trade that sent Kevin Shattenkirk to the Capitals.
“I saw it coming the whole way,” Sanford said. “I didn’t know if it was ever going to make it to me. It slowed up a little there at the end, but it ended up getting there in time.”
Tarasenko provided the insurance when he knocked in the rebound of Alexander Steen’s shot off the crossbar on the power play midway through the third and added an empty-netter late in the period.
“We fought the puck a bit and got some bad bounces,” Dell said. “It kind of didn’t go our way. The whole game went that way for us with the bad bounces.”
The teams traded goals late in the first period with Upshall scoring after intercepting a pass from Brent Burns and San Jose tying it when Vlasic’s point pass deflected off defenseman Carl Gunnarsson’s skate past Hutton.
NOTES: San Jose’s Micheal Haley fought with Ryan Reaves late in the second period. … Sharks D David Schlemko (lower-body injury) missed his seventh straight game but could return Saturday.
UP NEXT
Blues: Visit Arizona on Saturday.
Sharks: Host Anaheim on Saturday.
