The San Jose Sharks and visiting St. Louis Blues find themselves tied in the Western Conference wild-card chase as they prepare to face off Monday night.
The clubs are four points back of the Nashville Predators for the final playoff spot in the West, though the Sharks have a game in hand on the Blues.
St. Louis (31-30-11, 73 points) topped the Toronto Maple Leafs 5-1 on Saturday night to stretch its winning streak to four games and move above .500 for the first time since they were 3-2-1.
Jimmy Snuggerud, Justin Holl, Pius Suter, Dylan Holloway and Philip Broberg all scored as the Blues improved to 10-1-2 in their last 13. Jordan Kyrou, Robert Thomas and Jake Neighbours each had two assists, and Jordan Binnington needed to make only 12 saves.
“Playing with confidence has been big,” said Thomas, who returned after sitting out one game with an upper-body injury. “The guys have really stepped up and taken over on how we want to play. We’re just playing with a ton of confidence. Our (defense is) getting up in the plays, we’re transitioning so quick, we’re finding the middle. Our attack off the rush is really dangerous.
“There’s a lot of things going well right now, especially when you have so many young guys coming in. They’ve really stepped up, not only their play but just showing maturity and stepping up and talking in the room. I think it’s been really important lately.”
Thomas has 18 points (six goals, 12 assists) in his past 14 games, Holloway has nine goals and 10 assists in 15 contests since returning from a high ankle sprain and Snuggerud has 14 points (seven goals, seven assists) in his past 11 outings.
San Jose (33-31-7, 73 points) will go for back-to-back wins after snapping a six-game losing streak (0-5-1) against the Columbus Blue Jackets on Saturday.
“I think we just let go of a little bit of that weight that we’re dealing with,” Macklin Celebrini said. “I mean, it kind of was weighing on all of us, just not winning games and feeling we weren’t getting bounces.”
Igor Chernyshov scored twice, including the game-winner, and Celebrini added a goal and an assist for the Sharks while goaltender Alex Nedeljkovic made 22 saves in the 3-2 win. Will Smith contributed a pair of helpers.
With the assist, Celebrini became just the fifth player in NHL history with 100 career assists as a teenager.
“I truly believe this team can get hot,” Sharks coach Ryan Warsofsky said. “When we play good hockey, we play the right way and we get buy-in, and we get going, and we’re determined, we have desperation to defend, we can get hot. I really don’t care what the lead is and how many times we had the lead — let’s see what the result is at the end of the game.”
Monday is the third and final meeting between the Blues and Sharks this season. St. Louis topped San Jose 3-2 on March 6 and edged the Sharks 2-1 last Thursday, both games requiring overtime.
