NHL teams
Craig Custance, ESPN Senior Writer 8y

Rapid Reaction: St. Louis Blues 6, Dallas Stars 1

ST. LOUIS -- If you're into quality goaltending, at least from both teams, this one was ugly. If you're a fan of the St. Louis Blues, it was exactly the game you've been waiting to see this series.

The Blues routed the Dallas Stars 6-1 on Tuesday night in Game 3 to open a 2-1 series lead, and did so in dominant fashion.

How it happened: The Blues broke open a close game with three second-period goals, two of them coming on shots that should have been stopped.

With the Blues up 2-1, Troy Brouwer beat defenseman Kris Russell while driving to the net and scored on Antti Niemi, who was then pulled in favor of Kari Lehtonen.

It didn't get any better for the Stars after that, with Vladimir Tarasenko scoring his first goal of the series with a shot deflected off the skate of Stars defenseman Alex Goligoski. Later in the period, Alexander Steen scored on the power play on another goal that needed to be saved and the rout was on.

What it means: The dominating Blues that hadn't yet arrived in this series finally made it. They were relentless in the offensive zone, with a forecheck the Stars never had an answer for, and were aided by leaky goaltending.

There are myriad problems the Stars will need to address or else this is going to be a short series. First and foremost is the goaltending. Both goalies have now played in the last two games and neither Lehtonen nor Niemi has shown the ability to seize the reins and stabilize the goaltending. One more game like Game 3 and it might be too late.

And the Blues have enjoyed a major advantage on special teams, with the penalty-killing unit shutting down the Stars' power play, and the Blues' power play scoring regularly.

The Stars have shown a strong ability to bounce back this season, and they're going to need to forget this one quickly because it was ugly. For the Blues, they need to bottle up that second period and find that level throughout the playoffs because when they find it, they can beat anybody.

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