The Sharks and Blues enter Sunday afternoon's critical Game 5 of the Western Conference final all tied at two.
San Jose has held up well against St. Louis' top three lines during the first four games of the series, but it's the Blues' fourth line that has given the Sharks issues.
That's why Blues head coach Craig Berube put Ivan Barbashev, Oskar Sundqvist and Alexander Steen on the ice to open Friday night's Game 4 -- a 2-1 Blues win.
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SIGN UP HERE It paid off, as the line forced a turnover in the Sharks' zone 35 seconds into the game with an aggressive forecheck. After Brent Burns was crunched behind San Jose's net, the puck found its way to Barbashev. The winger ripped a shot on goal that glanced off Sharks center Gustav Nyquist and found the back of the net to give the Blues an early 1-0 lead.
In the series, St. Louis' fourth line has scored three goals, been good on the penalty kill and aggressive on the forecheck. In short, they haven't played like a fourth line.
“They have a lot of confidence,” Berube said, via The St. Louis Post-Dispatch. “Just getting that first shift in like that is big. It gets us to our game right away. They’ve been really good in all facets of the game, not only getting some secondary scoring from ‘em, but just put ‘em against any line out there they do the job. Penalty killing, checking, just all the little things.”
They've created scoring chances on rushes up ice and just been an overall pain in the Sharks' backside.
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“I don’t call them our fourth line, but they do so much for us,” Blues center Brayden Schenn said. “They’re PKers, they’re scoring big goals right now. So, if you want, you can label them as that, but we don’t see that in the locker room. We feel like we’re a group of 12 forwards out there and anyone can do the job on any given night. Those guys stepped up as a line tonight and got us going.”
As the two teams get ready for an afternoon puck drop at SAP Center on Sunday, it's important that San Jose finds a way to neutralize the energy the Blues' fourth line brings.
The Sharks haven't lost two straight home games during these Stanley Cup playoffs, and taking out the energetic fourth line will go along ways to securing a Game 5 win and three-games-to-two series lead.
[RELATED: History at Game 5s on Sharks' side vs. Blues]
The Blues will need a burst of energy in order to combat what is sure to be a raucous SAP Center crown Sunday afternoon. That energy has come from the fourth line during this series.
If Barbashev, Steen, and Sundqvist go quiet Sunday, the Sharks have a good chance at inching closer to the Stanley Cup Final.
