Mike Smith Jersey | Forum

DALLAS (AP) — Stars captain Jamie Benn had his first multi-goal game since early October Johnny Gaudreau Jersey Kids , and the St. Louis Blues suddenly looked much different than they had while winning 11 games in a row.With Benn scoring two of the four goals Dallas got in a span of just more than 12 minutes in the second period, one of those redirecting a flying puck with his stick, the Stars beat St. Louis 5-2 on Thursday night to end the Blues’ franchise-record winning streak.“Frustrating. They didn’t do anything special. They just high flipped it, got a couple good bounces,” said Blues center Ryan O’Reilly, who had a goal and an assist. “When we do things the right way, we’re successful. And you see tonight when we don’t do it and we got away from staples of our game, playing heavy and being hard on all pucks and getting pucks deep. When you get away from that, it’s tough to win.”When Benn scored the game’s first goal 3:46 into the second period, the Blues trailed for the first time since Feb. 5 — a span of more than 517 minutes on the ice over 10 games.Radek Faksa and Alexander Radulov put Dallas up 3-0 with goals in a 65-second span midway through the second period.The Stars, who are currently in position for a playoff spot in coach Jim Montgomery’s first season Mark Giordano Jersey , snapped a three-game losing streak in which they were shut out twice.“They’re a good team. I can see why they’ve won 11 in a row,” Benn said. “We found a way to come out and get to them in the second and find a way to win the hockey game and get a big two points for our team.”Blues goaltender Jordan Binnington entered the game with a 13-1-1 record and was riding a nine-game winning streak that was a rookie team record. The only other time he allowed four goals was Jan. 21 against the Los Angeles Kings, 4-3 in the last loss for him and the team.“He deserves better from us. All the goals that are going in, it’s just loose coverage,” defenseman Alex Pietrangelo said. “He’s been unbelievable. Again, He was good tonight, made a lot of saves when we needed him to. … We know that we need to be better in front of him.”Binnington had 19 saves. The Stars got an empty-net goal from Tyler Seguin in the final minute, the only goal in the game not scored in the second period.Anton Khudobin stopped 43 shots while starting his seventh consecutive game for the Stars. Regular starting goaltender Ben Bishop, who missed the previous six games with an upper body injury, was active and on the bench as the backup after going through an optional practice Wednesday.Benn scored his second goal of the night, and 21st of the season Youth Matthew Tkachuk Jersey , when he redirected a flying puck with four minutes left in the second period to make it 4-1. His only other multi-goal game this season came Oct. 6, when he scored twice in a win over Winnipeg in the second game of the season.Vladimir Tarasenko scored his 27th goal for the Blues on an assist from O’Reilly, who got his 24th goal of the season in the closing seconds of the second period.“I thought the first period, the Blues were playing at a level of intensity that we hadn’t seen, playoff intensity. You can see why they’ve been so successful,” Montgomery said. “After the first period, I thought we raised our level, and our second period was excellent.”NOTES: The Blues were without C Brayden Schenn, who sustained an upper-body injury in their 3-2 overtime win against Toronto on Tuesday night. Coach Craig Berube isn’t sure how long the injury will keep Schenn (11 goals, 28 assists) out of the lineup. … Blues D Joel Edmundson broke his stick in two when he slammed it across the post following Benn’s second goal. Edmundson had Benn pushed into the corner just before the score. … Brett Ritchie of the Stars and Colton Parayko got five-minute majors for fighting after trading several hard punches in the second period.UP NEXTBlues: At Boston on Saturday.Stars: Play their third home game in a row, Saturday against Carolina. DENVER (AP) The Nashville Predators are done dealing with the speed of Nathan MacKinnon and the Colorado Avalanche.Next Michael Frolik Jersey , they get the physicality of Dustin Byfuglien and the Winnipeg Jets .There’s no easy test this time of year.”They’ve got size. They’ve got skill. They’ve got speed,” forward Austin Watson said Sunday night after Nashville beat the Avalanche 5-0 in Game 6 to clinch the series. ”Get our rest and get prepared.”Nashville looks every bit like the team that went to the Stanley Cup Final a season ago and won the Presidents’ Trophy this season. The Predators are hitting their stride heading into the Winnipeg series. They had 11 forwards notch at least a point in the Colorado series.Not to be outdone, the Jets had a balanced scoring attack in closing out Minnesota, 4-1.”We saw how the regular season went against them. They’re good hockey games,” said Watson, whose team went 3-1-1 against the Jets during the year. ”We’re excited.”This goaltending showdown should be worth the price of admission: Pekka Rinne vs. Connor Hellebuyck.One Vezina Trophy finalist against another. Both are coming off a solid series, with Rinne stopping 22 shots in a 5-0 win Sunday to close out the series with Colorado. Hellebuyck had a 1.94 goals-against average in eliminating the Wild.”Moving into the second round, I think you want to be playing very good defensive hockey against Winnipeg,” Rinne said. ”One of the better teams in the league. They have a lot of firepower, a lot of talent up front. Also, like ours Authentic Mikael Backlund Jersey , their `D’ is a big part of their game. I think it’s going to be very exciting, good series.”The Western Conference semifinals feature a little bit of history: This marks only the third time the final four in the conference are all chasing after their first Stanley Cup since the introduction of conferences in `74-75, according to information provided by the league. The scenario also occurred in 2012 (the Los Angeles Kings hoisted the Cup) and in 1984 (Edmonton).In the other semifinal matchup set to get underway, expansion Las Vegas faces San Jose.”Anytime you win a series you’re feeling confident,” Predators forward Nick Bonino said. ”We’re going to be as confident as we can going against Winnipeg. We know how good they are.”That’s a sentiment shared by forward Filip Forsberg, who scored four goals against Colorado.”It was a good test for us. These guys have been flying around for six games, playing really fast hockey,” Forsberg said. ”We’ve been trying to play as fast as we can as well. If we can bring that speed into the next round that will be good.”The Nashville defense will have its hands full with the likes of Jets forward Patrik Laine, who scored 44 goals in the regular season, and Blake Wheeler (91 points).Still, the Predators enter on a high after posting a shutout victory in a series-ending game for the first time in franchise history. They joined Vegas and Winnipeg as the third team to accomplish the feat this postseason.”It’s better to end it this way than hanging on at the end Mike Smith Jersey ,” Predators coach Peter Laviolette said. ”There are other teams on the ice that are pretty good hockey teams. You see it in other series going on. It would have been great if you win (the series) 4-0 but that wasn’t the case. We had an opposition that was young, skilled and fast and they had nothing to lose, and they played that way. There were times in the first five games it didn’t look like it was just going happen – we were going to have to work for it.”It was nice tonight to play a game we were comfortable with.”The Avs take some pride in knowing they gave the Predators fits at times.”We made them fight for it,” Avalanche captain Gabriel Landeskog said.Exactly.”The way Colorado works and battles and plays the game fast, it definitely challenged us,” Predators center Colton Sissons said. ”It was a good experience for us going forward.”—