Scoring Chances: Game 5 @ St. Louis

The Sharks‘ play in the second period was the best single-period performance by either team in this series. San Jose outchanced St. Louis 8-2 in the middle frame (8-1 at evens), winning puck battles and dominating possession for the vast majority of the twenty minutes. Unfortunately, the other forty minutes of Game 5 turned out pretty ugly as the Sharks failed to register a single scoring chance in the first period then watched their third period defensive shell backfire; San Jose yielded five consecutive scoring chances at one point in the third with the final two ending up in the back of their net and clinching the series for the Blues.

I’ll have a more comprehensive review of the scoring chances from this series in the coming days but I do think there are reasons to be less than repulsed about what transpired without having to glue on teal-colored glasses. Despite ending after just five games, it was a tightly contested series with the Sharks actually outchancing the Blues 71-68 overall and 49-48 at even-strength. Although score effects certainly need to be taken into consideration since San Jose trailed for nearly the entire series, those are fairly impressive feats given that St. Louis has probably been the best team in the NHL all season and should easily be the favorites to win it all considering the volume of mediocre teams poised to advance.

Best EV Forward: Daniel Winnik (+3)

Worst EV Forward: Andrew Desjardins (-1)

Best EV Defenseman: Brent Burns, Douglas Murray, Dan Boyle (all +3)

Worst EV Defenseman: Justin Braun (even), Marc-Edouard Vlasic (even)

Period	Totals		EV		PP		5v3 PP		SH		5v3 SH
1	0	3	0	1	0	0	0	0	0	2	0	0
2	8	2	8	1	0	0	0	0	0	1	0	0
3	4	5	3	5	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
4	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Totals	12	10	11	7	1	0	0	0	0	3	0	0

Team	Period	Time	Note	SJS						Opponent
STL	1	7:09	Arnott PP	3	8	19	31	44		1	10	20	21	28	44	4v5
STL	1	5:46	Backes PP	3	17	31	44	69		1	22	27	42	57	74	4v5
STL	1	0:13	Oshie T	8	12	29	31	44	88	1	27	28	42	57	74	5v5
STL	2	18:33	Pietrangelo P	8	19	22	31	39	44	1	27	28	42	57	74	5v5
SJS	2	18:03	Thornton P	3	8	19	31	39	88	1	27	28	42	57	74	5v5
SJS	2	15:40	Couture F	9	19	22	29	31	60	1	4	10	20	21	46	5v5
SJS	2	14:11	Handzus F	3	17	22	26	31	34	1	5	12	15	22	26	5v5
SJS	2	12:45	Boyle T	9	12	22	29	31	61	1	5	28	42	57	74	5v5
STL	2	11:07	Pietrangelo PP	17	19	31	44	61		1	22	27	42	57	74	4v5
SJS	2	5:02	Clowe P	5	9	12	29	31	61	1	4	10	20	21	46	5v5
SJS	2	3:16	Wingels P	26	31	34	44	57	88	1	5	17	22	25	44	5v5
SJS	2	0:46	Mitchell P	5	17	19	31	34	61	1	15	27	28	42	57	5v5
SJS	2	0:41	Goal – Thornton P	5	17	19	31	34	61	1	15	27	28	42	57	5v5
SJS	3	16:46	Havlat T	9	12	29	31	44	88	1	4	10	20	42	46	5v5
STL	3	15:39	Langenbrunner R	5	17	26	31	34	61	1	5	12	15	22	26	5v5
STL	3	11:25	Arnott P	5	17	26	31	34	61	1	5	17	22	25	44	5v5
STL	3	9:58	Oshie T	5	19	31	57	61	69	1	4	21	46	57	74	5v5
STL	3	8:44	Goal – Langenbrunner R	5	9	12	29	31	61	1	4	12	15	26	46	5v5
STL	3	7:59	Goal – Perron P	5	9	12	29	31	61	1	21	27	28	57	74	5v5
SJS	3	7:02	Burns T	3	17	26	31	34	88	1	4	21	46	57	74	5v5
SJS	3	3:50	Marleau PP	8	12	19	22	31	39	1	5	12	17	27		5v4
SJS	3	2:26	Pavelski P	8	12	22	31	39	61	1	10	22	42	46	74	5v5

#	Player	EV			PP			SH
3	D. MURRAY	9:18	3	0	0:03	0	0	1:57	0	2
5	C. WHITE	13:38	3	5	0:00	0	0	1:45	0	0
8	J. PAVELSKI	18:04	2	2	2:24	1	0	1:33	0	1
9	M. HAVLAT	16:56	4	2	2:21	0	0	0:00	0	0
12	P. MARLEAU	16:58	4	3	1:36	1	0	1:05	0	0
17	T. MITCHELL	12:57	4	2	0:03	0	0	1:22	0	2
19	J. THORNTON	19:35	4	2	3:19	1	0	0:56	0	2
22	D. BOYLE	20:41	4	1	2:39	1	0	0:00	0	0
26	M. HANDZUS	11:08	3	2	0:26	0	0	0:00	0	0
29	R. CLOWE	16:48	4	3	2:21	0	0	0:00	0	0
31	A. NIEMI	50:34	11	7	4:00	1	0	4:00	0	3
34	D. WINNIK	12:53	5	2	0:03	0	0	0:00	0	0
39	L. COUTURE	17:51	2	1	1:36	1	0	1:05	0	0
44	M. VLASIC	16:24	2	2	0:03	0	0	2:15	0	3
57	T. WINGELS	5:41	1	1	0:00	0	0	0:00	0	0
60	J. DEMERS	8:26	1	0	1:28	0	0	0:00	0	0
61	J. BRAUN	14:08	5	5	0:02	0	0	2:03	0	1
69	A. DESJARDINS	8:35	0	1	0:03	0	0	1:59	0	1
88	B. BURNS	21:25	4	1	1:33	0	0	0:00	0	0

Chance Types

Team	Transition	Odd-man	Rebound	Forecheck	Possession	Steal	PP	SH
San Jose	3	0	0	2	6	0	1	0
St. Louis	2	0	2	0	3	0	3	0

Head-to-head scoring chances:

With Ken Hitchcock dictating matchups once again, David Backes was more or less hard-matched against Joe Thornton as the Sharks’ captain spent close to 70% of his EV ice time against his counterpart on the Blues. Unlike Games 1 and 2, Thornton was able to win that matchup. Marleau, who probably had his best game of the series despite once again failing to record a single chance at evens, beat the Patrik Berglund line as well and the Sharks as a whole had probably their strongest game at even-strength of this series, making it all the more disappointing that the loss ends their season.

More stats from the game: Corsi/Fenwick, Shift Charts, H2H Ice Time, Zonestarts, Play-By-Play, Box Score

Talking Points