It was on the minds of just about every St.Louis Blues fan and sports analyst leading into the series: the Blues could be this year’s Cinderella story. Having come out of the Christmas break in January in last place in the West, and after losing lead goaltender Manny Legace, back-up goaltender Chris Mason rallied the Blues in the second half of the season, going 25-9-7 in their last 41 games of the season and finishing sixth place in the West. Blues fans had high hopes for their reinvigorated team after jumping nine places in the standings to make the playoffs, but the team lost its luster in the post season, dropping four straight games to the superior Vancouver Canucks.
Last night saw the end of the Blues’ playoff run, as well as the Canucks’ first four game series sweep in franchise history — it was also the first time since the 1994 playoffs that St.Louis suffered a four game sweep. Despite the result, St.Louis played their best game of the series facing elimination, driving the puck to the net and following it through, something failed to do in the first three games. Their aggressive play led to their tying of the game at two in the second period with back-to-back goals less than four minutes apart. It also led to an astounding 49 shots on Luongo — compared to the Canucks’ 36 on Mason– throughout three periods of regulation and one frame of overtime.
However, Luongo’s disciplined composure kept his head in the game after the Blues kept crashing the net, single-handedly keeping the Canucks from facing a loss on numerous occasions, especially during the 4 minute penalty caused by Ryan Kessler’s high-stick in overtime. The man-advantage was definitely where the Blues went wrong this series, squandering their chances through all four games (they went 1 for 24). At the end of the night, it was the Canucks who truly impressed, with Burrows scoring the winning goal with 19 seconds to go in overtime, giving the Canucks the win and the 4-0 clean series sweep.
Vancouver Canucks tickets for the second round will go on sale soon once their opponent is decided.