Blues blast Sharks 7-2 for third straight win

St. Louis Blues' T.J. Oshie (74) looks to shoot the puck as San Jose Sharks goalie Antti Niemi (31) defends in the second period of an NHL hockey game, Thursday, Jan. 8, 2015 in St. Louis.
St. Louis Blues' T.J. Oshie (74) looks to shoot the puck as San Jose Sharks goalie Antti Niemi (31) defends in the second period of an NHL hockey game, Thursday, Jan. 8, 2015 in St. Louis.

ST. LOUIS (AP) - The St. Louis Blues scored the final four goals to turn a one-goal lead into a 7-2 rout of the San Jose Sharks on Thursday night.

Alexander Steen, Jay Bouwmeester, Paul Stastny, Jori Lehtera, T.J. Oshie, Patrik Berglund and David Backes all scored for the Blues, who have now 20 goals in three games. Jaden Schwartz added three assists and Brian Elliott made 25 saves.

The Blues beat the Sharks 7-2 on Saturday in San Jose and then defeated the Coyotes 6-0 on Tuesday in Arizona. Thursday's game was the start of a seven-game home stand for St. Louis, which had played 16 of its previous 23 games on the road.

The Sharks, who rebounded from the loss to the Blues with road wins against the Jets on Monday and the Wild on Tuesday, got goals from Logan Couture and Melker Karlsson.

St. Louis struck first with a power-play goal from Steen, his 11th of the season and third in four games, and a goal from Bouwmeester.

San Jose answered with a short-handed goal from Couture, his 15th, with 1:33 remaining in the first period after Joe Pavelski took a double-minor for high-sticking.

Stastny helped the Blues capitalize on Pavelski's penalty with a power-play goal, his ninth of the season, assisted by Oshie and Kevin Shattenkirk with 54 seconds left in the period.

The Sharks scored just 29 seconds into the second period with a wrister from Karlsson, his fourth in four games, to make it 3-2.

The Blues scored four straight goals from that point, with two in the second period and two more in the third.

Lehtera scored his ninth of the season in the second, followed by Oshie's 11th on a rebound of Alexander Steen's shot to chase San Jose goalie Antti Niemi from the game.

Berglund made it 6-2 with a wraparound goal with 10:55 left in the third period. Then Backes, who had four goals in the win in Arizona, scored his 14th of the season with 8:01 left.

NOTES: San Jose C Joe Thornton missed his fourth consecutive game with a shoulder injury. He had played 319 straight games before suffering the injury on Dec. 31. . The Blues' attendance of 19,220 was their sixth sellout of the season. . The Backes-Steen-Oshie line has now accounted for 35 points in the Blues' past seven games. . The Blues entered Thursday's game leading the NHL in power-play percentage (25.7 percent).

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