The St Louis Blues advanced to their first Conference finals after eliminating the Anaheim Ducks in 6 games. The Ducks, who upset the 2nd ranked Dallas Stars in the 1st round, couldn't handle the Blues. Led by Todd White who had 8 points in the series (5 goals, 3 assists), including the game winning goals in Games 5 and 6, the Blues now meet the San Jose Sharks for a shot at the Cup. The Sharks who knocked off the Chicago Blackhawks and the Phoenix Coyotes made headlines early in the year by trading superstar Alexander Ovechkin, has seemingly never put a foot wrong.
The Blues didn't show any hangover from their 7 game series with Detroit as they won Game 1 by 2-1. Todd White scored the opening goal of the series just over 8 minutes into the game before Raffi Torres equalized in the second period. However, as would be seen throughout the series, timely goals were scored by the Blues. Mike Fisher scored with just two seconds left in the second for the eventual game winner.
In Game 2, the Ducks relied on two goals in the first period by Stajan and Vielleux and then shut down the Blues down. Despite outshooting the Ducks 32-19, Todd White was the only St Louis player to beat Lundqvist on the night. Which saw a change which saw the Blues change up their lines.
Game 3 continued the see-saw with the Blues picking up the win and a 2-1 lead. However, it was the solid goaltending of Evgeni Nabokov who picked up his 2nd shutout of the playoffs that led to a 3-0 win for the Blues. Nabokov, who lead the league in shutouts in the regular season, now leads all goalies in shutouts, GAA and is tied with Ryan Miller in save percentage (of goalies remaining) in the playoffs. O'Donnell opened the scoring just over a minute into the first, but it was the two markers by Hagman and Arnott about a minute apart into the second period killed off any hope for the Ducks to win Game 3.
After a disappointing outing in Game 3, the Ducks stormed back in Game 4, scoring 4 goals on Nabokov for the first time in this playoffs. In fact, in 13 games this playoffs, the Blues have only conceeded 3 or more goals in three games. However, after Tom Poti's goal in the first, Game 4 was all Ducks. Kovalev, Campbell, Bourque and Bieksa scored their first goals of the series making the series a best of three.
However, Games 5 and 6 were all the Blues needed. Scoring 7 goals in the two games were more than enough for the stingy defense of the Blues to complete the series and eliminate the Ducks. Eric Staal scored his 1st goal of the series in the first and coupled with two goals by Todd White in the first, the Blues had a lead they would not relinquish, finishing the game with a 4-2 win after Pavel Datsyuk scored his 4th goal of the playoffs 8 seconds into the second period.
An early penalty to Patrice Brisebois allowed Pavel Datsyuk to score a powerplay goal early on in a period the Blues dominated, outshooting the Ducks 10-3 in the period. Todd White and Paul Martin scored two minutes apart early in the second to give the Blues a 3-0 lead and although Matt Stajan broke Nabokov's shutout bid midway through the second, the Ducks were never really contenders of coming back to win the game. The Blues continued to outshoot the Ducks by a wide margin, ending the game outshooting the Ducks 38-15.
The series against the Sharks will be a battle between the offensive presence of the Sharks against the defensive ability of the Blues. While the Sharks have 8 players with 8 points or more, the Blues boast just three. However, the Blues have the league's best goalie while Ilya Bryzgalov has struggled, averaging 2.87 GAA and a .896 SV%, the worst out of the four remaining starters. The special team battle will also be an interesting fight as the Sharks have the 5th best playoff powerplay while the Blues have the 2nd worst at just over 7%. However, the Blues boast the 2nd best penalty kill, clicking over 90%, while the Sharks have been suffering around 70%.
