Blues vs. Stars 2016 final score: St. Louis fights off Dallas rally to tie series with 4-3 overtime win
Despite a Stars comeback, the Blues took Game 2 in overtime to even the series, 1-1.
Dallas opened the scoring three and a half minutes in on a rare defensive breakdown for the normally stingy Blues squad. Alex Goligoski was left wide open at the front of the cage and captain Jamie Benn threw a no-look backhanded pass from below the goal line to the defenseman banging his stick urgently. The defenseman rifled the puck top shelf glove side on Brian Elliott, who was not able to stop the quick shot for the 1-0 Stars lead.
From there, the Blues got the next three goals. Patrik Berglund came up with the equalizer just 35 seconds after Goligoski's opening tally. A 3-on-2 rush for the Blues saw Berglund get behind the Stars' defense for a snipe that caught Kari Lehtonen over the shoulder.
Troy Brouwer’s cross-ice, below the goal line feed to Joel Edmundson made it 2-1 Blues just under three minutes later. Edmundson tapped in the puck coming down the slot and with no Dallas pressure on him, the puck was easy to elevate top shelf on the redirection.
St. Louis then made the Stars pay on a power play goal to end the period. Brouwer got his second point on a rebound in front that kicked off of Lehtonen’s pads right to the forward. Three goals on five shots made it 3-1 Blues to end the first.
After one period of hockey, the Stars went to backup Antti Niemi to backstop the Dallas net. Niemi shut down the Blues' 10-shot second period in a scoreless middle frame for both clubs.
Mattias Janmark got the Stars back within one on a breakaway four and a half minutes into the third. Turning on a burst of speed, Janmark beat Elliott five-hole after getting the goaltender to open the pads for the 3-2 score.
Despite losing a contact after a hard shot hit him in the face, Elliott stayed in the game. The Blues had just two shots in the third and the Stars capitalized on furious pressure in the final minutes to send the game to overtime. Benn picked up a blocked shot in front of the net and fired it home for the tying score with Elliott down in the crease.
An up and down overtime was stalled twice by Stars penalties. Dallas was able to kill the first, but an interference penalty by Antoine Roussel in the mid-stages of overtime was the dagger. David Backes screened Niemi in front and got the rebound past the outstretched legs of the netminder for the 4-3 game winner.
