Sharks Finish Upset

San Jose
Sharks

"It's great," Sharks goalie Steve Shields said. "This is what you play for. You want to be in these types of games."

Shields bounced back after a soft performance in Game 6 with a solid effort as the Sharks clearly dominated most of the game.

"I focused on this game, put the last game in the past," said Shields. "I was embarrassed watching the game tape. I felt better because I knew what I did wrong. I was moving too much and wasn't playing with patience. It had nothing to do with my mind."

The Blues became only the second Presidents' Trophy winners to lose in the first round of the playoffs. After the 114-point regular season St. Louis' hopes were high and the early exit from the playoffs is a bitter disappointment.

"It's a big disappointment," said St. Louis center Pierre Turgeon. "A lot of good things happened throughout the year. And when you reach the playoffs, you want to go far. We're disappointed about it."

Owen Nolan scored his sixth goal of the playoffs with a blast from the red line that somehow slipped under Roman Turek's arm into the net, it was yet another weird goal in the series.

"It's been a flukey series for goals," Nolan said. "I thought why not just shoot it on net and see what happens? He bobbled it and it went in."

"I've never seen as many crazy goals as I have in this series," Blues coach Joel Quenneville said. "That's not an excuse, it's a fact."

Ronnie Stern and Jeff Friesen also scored for the Sharks, who will face Dallas in the second round beginning Friday night at Dallas.

"We'll take a day off and have a little fun and realize we've accomplished one step," center Mike Ricci said. "We went from the first seed to the second seed, so it just gets tougher."