Meier and Couture spark Sharks past Blues in NHL Western final opener

Couture added an empty-net goal to give him an NHL-leading 11 in the post-season. Joe Pavelski and Kevin Labanc also scored for San Jose and Martin Jones made 28 saves.

Game 2 is Monday night at the Shark Tank.

Joel Edmundson, Ryan O’Reilly and Tyler Bozak scored for the Blues, but the team gave little help to rookie goalie Jordan Binnington to get off to a rough start in the conference final. Binnington made 19 saves, but was left exposed by his defence on numerous occasions.

This series is a matchup between franchises seeking their first championship after years of playoff disappointments. They endured tough roads to get here with the Sharks needing to win a pair of seven-game series and the Blues needing a double-overtime win in Game 7 against Dallas to make it to their fourth conference final in 49 years.

The teams traded goals midway through the second period with Labanc converting after a turnover by Edmundson and O’Reilly answering 1:17 later with a nifty move to get around Jones and tuck a rebound into the open net.

Meier then took over with his two goals in the second half of the period that gave the Sharks breathing room. His first came after Couture poke-checked Colton Parayko coming out of the zone. Meier got the puck, deked past Jay Bouwmeester and then used his quick hands to get a backhand past Binnington.

Meier then got his first two-goal game in the post-season late in the period when his centring pass from behind the goal line deflected off Vince Dunn’s skate and into the net to make it 5-2.

Bozak scored with 6:59 left in the third for the Blues but they couldn’t get any closer despite pulling Binnington with more than four minutes remaining. Couture then sealed it with an empty-netter.

Both teams expected a physical series between two teams with big players who like to get on the forecheck. That’s just the way it started with the Blues delivering several hard hits in the opening period in sharp contrast to the type of series San Jose played last round against the speedy Colorado.

But the Sharks turned one hit of their own into an early goal as Meier separated Pietrangelo from the puck in the neutral zone to send Gustav Nyquist in on a two-on-one. Nyquist slid the puck to Couture, who one-timed it into the open net.

The Blues answered after Couture was sent hard into the boards by Jaden Schwartz with no call at one end. That led to a rush and Edmundson deflected Schwartz’s shot from the circle past Jones.

Then St Louis committed two penalties in a span of 57 seconds after going more than 136 minutes without one in the playoffs. That gave San Jose a two-man advantage that Pavelski converted into a goal when he batted his own rebound out of midair into the net.