Instant Replay: Hertl nets two in Game 3 win over Blues

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SAN JOSE -– For the first time in their 25-year history, the Sharks have a series lead in the Western Conference Final.

And they’re starting to make it look easy.

Tomas Hertl scored twice, and Martin Jones notched his second straight shutout in goal as the Sharks downed St. Louis is Game 3 on Thursday night, 3-0.

The Sharks lead the best-of-seven series, two-games-to-one, running their home winning streak in the playoffs to six games and outclassing the Blues for the second straight meeting. St. Louis saw its three-game road winning streak come to an end.

The series remains at SAP Center for Game 4 on Saturday afternoon (4:15 p.m., NBCSN).

Hertl’s fourth goal opened the scoring. After Brent Burns broke up Colton Parayko’s pass in the neutral zone, Joe Pavelski brought the puck over the line and slinked a pass through Parayko to an open Hertl, who blasted in a slap shot from the circle at 15:53 of the first period.

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San Jose, which didn’t register a shot until almost nine minutes into the opening frame, took its 1-0 lead to the dressing room.

The Sharks were the better team from the outset of the second period, and upped their lead to 2-0 at 11:44. Trailing a Logan Couture-Patrick Marleau rush, an open Joonas Donskoi received a Couture pass and buzzed in a wrist shot from between the circles for his fourth goal of the postseason.

The Blues made a push in the first few minutes of the third, aided in part by some defensive zone sloppiness by the Sharks.

But rather than get back into the game, they saw Hertl add a dagger with his second goal of the night. Joe Thornton gunned a hard tape-to-tape pass to Hertl behind the net, and the Sharks winger got free of Jaden Schwartz before cutting to the front and finding daylight between Brian Elliott’s pads at 6:09.

Jake Allen came in to tend goal for the Blues after the score, relieving Elliott for the second time in the last five games.

Thornton and Pavelski each had two assists.

In the Sharks’ previous three appearances in the Western Conference Final, they lost the first two games of each and were never able to catch up.

Special teams

After an abundance of penalties in Game 2, special teams did not play much of a role in Game 3. The Sharks went 0-for-2, including a meaningless advantage in the final minute, while St. Louis was 0-for-1.

San Jose is 2-for-10 in the series, while St. Louis is 1-for-9.

In goal

Jones improved to 10-5 with 22 saves, and became the first Sharks goalie to ever post back-to-back shutouts in the playoffs. His shutout streak stands at 150:45.

Elliott dropped to 9-8 in the playoffs, allowing three goals on just 14 shots. He last got pulled in the first period of Game 6 of the Blues’ second round series against Dallas, after allowing three goals on seven shots.

Allen was pulled with five-and-a-half minutes to go in the third period.

Lineup

St. Louis switched up three of its forward line combinations for the start of the game. The Blues also dressed Magnus Pajaarvi for the first time in the playoffs and inserted Dmitrij Jaskin and Robert Bortuzzo into the lineup. Steve Ott, Scottie Upshall and Joel Edmundson all came out.

Sharks defenseman Paul Martin, who has made the playoffs in each of his 12 years in the league, played in his 100th career postseason game.

Up next

The Sharks have a 9-4 record all-time when leading two-games-to-one. They are 17-16 all-time in Game 4’s, going 1-1 this season.

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