Teams that believe they can win the Stanley Cup do exactly what the St. Louis Blues did Sunday night–walk into a hostile environment, put their foot on the opponents’ neck in the first two minutes and keep it there until the final horn.
“We showed a lot of character,” bruising forward Keith Tkachuk said after the Blues’ dominating 4-0 victory over the Blackhawks to take a 2-1 lead in the best-of-seven series. “The biggest thing is composure. Whether a good thing happened or a bad thing happened, it’s a 60-minute game and you have to be prepared to stay composed.”
Some of the Blues said they used the rousing national anthem, in which the crowd of 20,532 at the United Center roared non-stop, to fire themselves up as well.
“It’s an unbelievable atmosphere in this building, it always is, and it’s even magnified in the playoffs,” said Blues forward Jamal Mayers, who quieted the crowd by scoring 1 minute 48 seconds into the contest.
“We tried to feed off that through the national anthem. Everyone got chills. It was certainly exciting to play in that type of atmosphere.”
Mayers, along with fellow winger Tyson Nash, makes his living as a pest. He’s part of the Blues’ fourth line–along with veteran center Ray Ferraro–that is basically an energy unit. Any offense that line produces is a bonus.
“Obviously our job is to go out and create momentum and turnovers and put pressure on the defense,” Mayers said. “Anytime we can score a goal and chip in here or there, it helps the team.”
Hawks coach Brian Sutter said the number of shots on goal in a playoff game is overrated, that it’s scoring chances that matter. No matter what statistic is used, the Blues have suffocated the Hawks’ offense for 123:10, dating back to Alexander Karpovtsev’s game-winning goal in Game 1.
Blues goalie Brent Johnson earned his second straight shutout and barely broke a sweat. He went almost 10 minutes in the second period without seeing a shot and then had to make a sparkling save on a Kyle Calder shot. He had even less work in the third period when the Hawks–trailing by four goals–managed just one shot.
“Nothing is easy, but it’s definitely the best thing for me to play behind a defense like this,” Johnson said.
