Blues Crush Sharks

San Jose
Sharks

Scott Young scored his first career playoff hat trick and rookie Jochen Hecht had a goal and three assists as St. Louis tries to come back from three games to one deficit for the second straight year.

"We played a great game, finally," Young said. "We were a little undisciplined in the beginning of the series, and that's very uncharacteristic of us. Now we've settled into the game and calmed down a bit. With our backs against the wall, we really responded."

Chris Pronger and Tyson Nash also scored for the Blues, and Pierre Turgeon had three assists.

"It was do or die for us. We came in knowing that," Pronger said. "We played very solidly defensively in the first period and then had that big second period. The last few games, the second period was kind of our downfall."

The Blues scored six times on their first 13 shots and that was enough for Sharks goalie Steve Shields, who was replaced in the third period by Evgeni Nabokov.

"It was a joke today. It was a puzzle. This takes us back to square one," San Jose coach Darryl Sutter said. "By the fourth and fifth goals, we were out of it. It was a game of mistakes by our guys."

All the sudden San Jose's upset of the top-seeded St. Louis is in serious doubt as Game 7 will be played on Tuesday at St. Louis.

"This was the best way for us to lose," forward Tony Granato said. "We don't agonize about it, we don't worry about it, we don't think about what we did wrong. It's far better to lose this way than in OT."

Last year the Blues fell behind Phoenix 3-1 in the first round, but bounced back and won the series.

"I think the guys realized it could be done," Pronger said. "Nobody hung their head. We were still positive and focused on getting things done."