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ST. wholesale nfl jerseys . LOUIS -- Vladimir Tarasenko and St. Louis were in trouble Saturday before a vicious hit by Chicago defenceman Brent Seabrook provided an opening for the Blues. That little crack was all St. Louis needed to put another dent in the Blackhawks bid for a second straight Stanley Cup title. Seabrooks blow to the head of David Backes led to a 6-on-4 power play for St. Louis that ended with Tarasenkos tying goal with 6.4 seconds left in regulation, and low-scoring defenceman Barret Jackman ended the game with a drive through traffic, giving the Blues their second straight 4-3 overtime victory over the Blackhawks and a 2-0 series lead. "Those seeing-eye shots, I couldnt believe it went in," Blues coach Ken Hitchcock said. St. Louis took the opener in triple-overtime and fought off a Chicago rally in a game that began less than 39 hours later. Game 3 is Monday night in Chicago. Blackhawks goalie Corey Crawford tossed his equipment around in the locker room before meeting with reporters. He said he was screened a bit on the game-winner, adding, "I had my pads together, but there was a little space there and it just kind of squeezed through." Addressing the tying goal, Crawford said: "Its frustrating, but whatever. Im not going to cry about it. Weve just got to work harder." Jackman is the longest-tenured Blues player in a career dating to 2002, and totalled three goals and 15 points in the regular season. He has two career playoff goals, both in overtime and both giving the Blues a 2-0 series lead, also stunning the Kings in the first round in 2012 -- although the Kings recovered to take four straight. "We were taking some big hits and kept our composure," Jackman said. "And in the end, one squeaks in." St. Louis rallied after Seabrook received a five-minute major and game misconduct penalty for his hit on Backes that could lead to a suspension for one of Chicagos top defencemen. The Blues captain had to be helped off the ice, went straight to the locker room and did not return for the extra period. "I have no thoughts on the hit, thats up the league," Hitchcock said. "How do you think he is? Not great. Let the league deal with it." Seabrook said he wasnt trying to hurt Backes. "I feel bad seeing a guy like that on the ice," Seabrook said. "Ive been there myself. I wasnt trying to target his head or do anything like that." Blackhawks coach Joel Quennevillle didnt want to comment on the hit until he had taken a closer look. At the time, he was worried about the game situation. "Were almost through it and I was like Oh, my God," Quenneville said. "I was more worried about killing the major." Instead of retaliating, the Blues stuck up for Backes by sticking to the game plan. Shattenkirk said repercussions from the hit are "not for us to focus on." "We really have to keep just pushing forward," he added. "Whatever happens, just keep a positive mindset, a clear mind." Tarasenkos second goal of the series was a wrist shot that banged off the right post and in. Kevin Shattenkirk had a goal and two assists for the Blues, who also got a goal from Chris Porter. Duncan Keith, Seabrook and Michael Rozsival scored in a span of five shots to put the Blackhawks up 3-2 early in the third. But Seabrooks penalty proved costly and the Blackhawks got no help from a power play that went 0 for 4 and is 0 for 9 since Seabrook scored on their first chance in Game 1. Tarasenko made the most of the Blues 6-on-4 advantage after pulling goalie Ryan Miller. Keiths goal late in the second ended a scoring drought of 119 minutes and 27 seconds for Chicago since a three-goal first period in Game 1. Before Chicagos rally, Miller stopped 53 consecutive shots. A Blues checking forward started the scoring for the second straight game. Porter had one assist in 22 regular-season games. St. Louis made playing to the whistle pay off, capitalizing on a late flurry when Shattenkirks slap shot from just inside the blue line beat an out-of-position Crawford with 1.8 seconds to go in the first. NOTES: Quenneville and Falcons offensive line coach Mike Tice are co-owners of a thoroughbred, Midnight Hawk, that was the prohibitive favourite but lost by a nose in the Illinois Derby on Saturday. ... Shattenkirk had a career-best 10 goals in the regular season. ... Porter, a ninth-round pick of the Blackhawks in 2003, scored his first goal since April 7, 2013, at Detroit. ... Alexander Steen, who got the game-winner in triple-overtime in Game 1, is among five Blues players with two overtime playoff goals. The others: Brett Hull, Pierre Turgeon, Scott Young and Mark Reeds.jerseys from china . Beaulieu has four goals and 10 assists in 32 AHL games and had one assist in five games for Montreal this season. The 23-year-old Nattinen has five goals and six assists in 37 games for the Bulldogs this season. cheap nfl jerseys . Make that 2-40 now. Tony Gwynn Jr. led off the ninth with a walk against Miami closer Steve Cishek and later scored, Ben Revere added the go-ahead run when Miami second baseman Donovan Solano bobbled a potential double-play grounder and the Phillies rallied past the Marlins 5-4 Thursday night to snap a six-game losing streak.TORONTO - In his brief 10-month stint with the Raptors, Rudy Gay averaged just under 20 points per contest, accounting for the bulk of Torontos offence while hitting some big, game-winning shots before he was whisked away to Sacramento. His tenure wont be remembered for any of that, rightly or wrongly, and the Kings forward has mostly come to terms with that. He wont be remembered for the shots he made. No, "Rudy the Raptor" - as Kings coach Mike Malone refers to Gays previous incarnation - will be remembered for the shots he missed. All 530 of them. Even Gay himself, given the opportunity to sugarcoat his shooting woes ahead of Fridays return to Toronto, wouldnt put lipstick on the pig that was his horrid field goal percentage. It was bad, and he knows it. Surrounded by the sizeable Toronto media army he left behind for small-market Sacramento following Kings practice on Thursday, Gay was asked if he feels slighted when hes been called inefficient. "I was inefficient when I was here," he admitted, to the surprise of those who may have expected him to dance around the obvious. "Im not anymore. I was when I was here." Fridays game will mark Gays first visit to Air Canada Centre since he was sent to the Kings, along with Quincy Acy and Aaron Gray, on Dec. 9 in exchange for Patrick Patterson, Greivis Vasquez, John Salmons and Chuck Hayes. He was acquired from Memphis less than a year earlier, a trade engineered by former Raptors general manager Bryan Colangelo in the hopes of landing a star player that could dig the team out of its playoff hole and, in doing so, save his own skin. The experiment was short-lived. "He was put in a tough situation where he was looked on to be the saviour," coach Dwane Casey said of Gays time in Toronto. "Thats not his role as far as [the] type of guys we had. Hes a dynamic player, a big-time talent. He was brought here for the right reasons. It ended up turning into something that wasnt meant to be." After he and the Raptors closed out last season on a high note, the team opened with a record of 6-12 as Gay struggled, putting up some of the worst numbers of his eight-year career. "For whatever reason in Toronto he was only shooting 38 per cent, taking over 18 shots a game and everyone wanted to say he was the most inefficient player in the NBA," Malone said. "All I can base his play on is as a King. Hes been shooting the ball over 50 per cent, 20 points a night and hes a proven playmaker and rebounder as well." Nearly three months removed from his time in Toronto, Gay is enjoying a career resurgence as a member of the Kings. Hes scoring more points, taking three less shots per game while getting to the free throw line at a higherr rate. cheap jerseys. . He has shot 50 per cent or better in 23 of 37 games as a King, something he accomplished once in 18 contests with the Raptors this season. Whats responsible for his turnaround? It has a lot to do with the space occupied and the attention drawn by the Kings beast of a centre. "If you go back to his time in Memphis. when he had the luxury of playing with a very talented frontcourt in Marc Gasol and Zach Randolph. he was much more efficient with that line-up," Malone pointed out. "So we felt that he and DeMarcus (Cousins), especially the inside-outside combination, would be very tough to guard." With Gay, Cousins and breakout point guard Isaiah Thomas, the Kings are the NBAs only team that features three 20-point scorers. Although the record hasnt necessarily reflected it - Sacramento is 16-26 since the trade - that trio has co-existed better than expected. As a team, the Kings rank 12th in offensive efficiency, despite dropping to the bottom of league in assists. For a collection of reasons, many of which are probably too tough to explain or quantify, Gay has found a home in Sacramento and he seems to fit. Of course, he is not the only one with a new lease on life in the aftermath of the trade. The Raptors are now 27-14 without Gay in the line-up, jockeying for playoff position in the Eastern Conference as the Kings toil in the basement of West. Gay is genuinely happy for his old teammates, many of whom he considers close friends, but the Kings forward doesnt necessarily buy into the correlation between his departure and his former teams success. "We dont know if that would have happened if I were there, too," said the 27-year-old. "It happened early in the season. Nobody knows. Its one of those things that it has happened now, the trade happened, now theyre a playoff team. Of course, Id like to be a part of that, but Im in Sacramento now and I have to build this team." However, Raptors fans remember the missed shots, they remember the isolation-centric offence that torpedoed their teams overall watchability for the first month of the season, but, most of all, they remember the losses. In Gay, the Raptors got what they paid for and their inevitable break-up should not have come as too much of a surprise. He probably doesnt deserve to be booed when he returns to the ACC wearing visiting purple Friday night, but he will be and when he is, he wont be caught off guard. "I dont care," he said. "Im just going out there and doing my job. Honestly, I joke with these guys all of the time. I say, If you put two rims up in the kitchen, Ill go out and play. It really doesnt matter what happens, whos booing, whos cheering. It doesnt matter." cheap jerseys ' ' ' |
