BOX SCORE
ST. LOUISMarty Havlat scored in overtime, his second of the night, as the Sharks beat the Blues in double-overtime on Thursday night at Scottrade Center, 3-2.After a long shift by the Sharks second line early in the second extra frame, Havlat fired in a slap shot from the high slot at 3:34 on a feed from Ryane Clowe.The Sharks lead the best-of-seven series, one game to none. Game 2 is here on Saturday.It took just 54 seconds into the third period for St. Louis to erase a 1-0 deficit, when Patrik Berglund tipped a floating wrist shot by Kevin Shattenkirk past Antti Niemi.After Havlat tripped Jaroslav Halak behind the St. Louis net, Berglund deposited his second of the night with a wrist shot from the slot at 7:28 on the power play. Berglund trailed a rush up ice after the Sharks got caught too deep on a shorthanded rush of their own.San Jose responded. Tommy Wingels drove around Roman Polak and backhanded the puck to a charging Andrew Desjardins, who slipped it through Halak at 14:44.Niemi kept the Sharks in the game in the first overtime, as the Blues dominated territorially for virtually the entire 20 minutes. His best save came with just 35 seconds to go, when he got just enough of David Perrons laser from the circle.San Jose nearly won the game moments earlier, when TJ Galiardi spotted Torrey Mitchell in front of the net. Halak inadvertently kicked it out to the slot and was looking the wrong direction, but the puck was cleared out just in time before Galiardi could find it, as he charged in from the corner.After a scoreless first, Brent Burns drew a retaliatory slashing penalty on David Perron, putting the Sharks on the power play in the second period.They capitalized at 6:02. Dan Boyle had all day to skate with the puck towards the high slot, and his wrist shot deflected off of Havlats stick and over the shoulder of Halak.It was San Joses first goal at the Scottrade Center in 2011-12, after they were shut out in the two games here in the regular season. The power play had been a combined 0-for-10 in those two losses.San Joses penalty kill was tested twice in the frame, and passed both to keep that lead at the intermissionbarely.The Sharks impressively killed off a Jason Demers interference call midway through, but things got dicey with TJ Galiardi in the box for interference at 16:54.Niemi made another fantastic save on Alex Pietrangelo at the side of the net, swinging his left pad out to deny the Blues defenseman on the doorstep. Later, Berglund had a look at the net alone in the slot on a rush, but fired high.Alex Steen hit the post on a shorthanded rush with four minutes to go in the second.Odds and ends: Colin White, Jim Vandermeer, Michal Handzus, Brad Winchester and Benn Ferriero were the Sharks scratches.The Sharks started the first round on the road for the first time since 2007 in Nashville.Andrew Desjardins has two goals in four career playoff games.Tommy Wingels recorded an assist in his first career NHL playoff game.
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