SAN JOSE, Calif. (AP) -- On a San Jose Sharks team filled with established stars, 22-year-old Timo Meier can get overlooked at times even though he scored 30 goals in the regular season. Meier showed in Game 1 of the Western Conference final that he can be a force in his own right, scoring twice and setting up one of Logan Couture's two goals with a hard hit to send the Sharks to a 6-3 victory over the St. Louis Blues on Saturday night. ''He was a bull,'' Couture said. ''When he skates and his strength, he's tough to defend. We're fortunate enough to play with him on our line, and I thought he was really, really good. Good stick, strong on pucks, you saw the talent on the one where he was able to walk around the d-man and finish. He's a really good player and he's coming into his own right now.'' Meier's hit on Alex Pietrangelo led to Couture's goal that opened the scoring in the first period and he then scored twice in the second to give the Sharks a comfortable lead and their third straight Game 1 win this postseason. Couture added an empty-net goal to give him an NHL-leading 11 in the postseason. Joe Pavelski and Kevin Labanc also scored for San Jose and Martin Jones made 28 saves. ''We have so many great guys on this team, so many players that are just unbelievable hockey players,'' Meier said. ''It's fun to be able to play at this time of the year, and obviously have success, that's what I'm playing for. To win a Stanley Cup.'' 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 defense on numerous occasions. ''There were a few too many mistakes out there,'' Edmundson said. ''Whenever there was they capitalized on them. They really capitalized on every chance they got. That was the biggest difference of tonight's game.'' Story continues This series is a matchup between two franchises seeking their first championships 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 the past 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. ''He's got some good speed. He makes some good little plays out there,'' Pavelski said. ''Tonight it was on display for sure. When he picks it up in the neutral zone and he has the speed going, that one goal was really nice. He can definitely push the D back and generate some chances.'' Meier then got his first two-goal game in the postseason late in the period when he banked a pass from behind the goal line 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. ''We got caught in some turnovers and they capitalized on them,'' Blues coach Craig Berube said. ''We are too spread out, during playoff time, you have to have numbers around the puck. You have to have puck support everywhere. And we didn't have enough support.'' 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 with Edmundson's goal but then 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 for his second goal in as many games after missing six contests following a bloody concussion. NOTES: Couture also had 10 goals in the playoffs in 2016, joining Evgeni Malkin, Alex Ovechkin, Patrick Kane, Nikita Kucherov and Jake Guentzel as the only active players with at least two seasons of 10 or more postseason goals. ... Blues D Carl Gunnarsson (lower-body injury) was scratched and Robert Bortuzzo played in his place. --- More AP NHL: https://apnews.com/NHL and https://twitter.com/AP-Sports<doc-sep>SAN JOSE — Remember the hits, animosity and general bad blood the Sharks had in their first round series in these playoffs? Well, it’s all back, and it seems to suit the Sharks just fine. Kevin Labanc snapped a six-game goal drought and Timo Meier scored his fourth and fifth of the playoffs in the second period to help the Sharks earn a 6-3 win over the St. Louis Blues on Saturday in Game 1 of the Western Conference Final at SAP Center. Game 2 is Monday in San Jose at 6 p.m. Meier also added an assist on the first of Logan Couture’s two goals, and Martin Jones finished with 28 saves as the Sharks took the first game of a playoff series for the third straight round. They also beat the Vegas Golden Knights in a bruising first round and the Colorado Avalanche — in a less hostile second round — by identical 5-2 scores. “They’re a big team. They like to play physical, and that’s how it’s going to be,” said Gus Nyquist, who had two assists for the third time in six games. “We’ve been through it. Probably not against Colorado as much, but Vegas was a pretty physical series that we handled well. Just got to keep going.” The Sharks led 2-1 after the first period before Labanc and Blues center Ryan O’Reilly traded goals 1:17 part in the second. O’Reilly’s goal, at the 8:58 mark of the second, cut the Sharks lead to 3-2. Then Meier took over. He took a pass from Couture inside the St. Louis blue line, slipped the puck under the stick of a flat-footed Jay Bouwmeester, skated around him, then went forehand-to-backhand in close on Jordan Binnington, tapping the puck past his left pad for a 4-2 Sharks lead at the 10:24 mark. “That goal wouldn’t happen if that play wasn’t made by Logan,” Meier said. “I had some speed, the defenseman was flat-footed, so I just got it past him and I knew coming in on the goalie, I knew I had to make a move and cut back. It worked out.” Then with 2:26 left in the second, Meier, slightly behind the goal line to the left of the St. Louis net, picked up the loose puck after a shot from Marc-Edouard Vlasic and put it off Blues defenseman Vince Dunn and put it past Binnington. Labanc’s goal was his first, and the first for his line with Marcus Sorensen and Joe Thornton, since Game 1 against the Avalanche on April 26. That goal was also a game-winner. It also came after a neutral zone turnover by the Blues, one of three Sharks goals that came shortly after St. Louis giveaways. “We wanted to create as many turnovers as we could in all three zones and I think we did a good job of that,” Labanc said. “At the same time, we weren’t giving up as many turnovers and we were doing our job, managing the puck well, taking away their speed and not giving them much in our own end.” The Sharks knew this would be a much more physical series than the one they just completed against the Avalanche, and the tone was set early. Officially, the two teams combined for 35 hits in the first 20 minutes, with the Blues being credited with 22. But it was the Sharks who had a 2-1 lead after the first period. “We expected that. They’re a big, physical team and that’s the style we like to play, too,” Sharks defenseman Brenden Dillon said. “We expected kind of a mirror image. It just kind of came down to who was able to execute and play their system the best.” Couture opened the scoring at the 3:31 mark of the first, as he took a pass from Nyquist on a 2-on-1 and scored on a nearly open net for his league-leading 10th of the playoffs. The play was set up by Meier, who barreled over Alex Pietrangelo to free the puck before Nyquist picked it up and began the odd man rush. The Blues got that goal back at the 9:13 mark, as Jaden Schwartz’s shot from the faceoff circle to the right of the Sharks net was tipped by Joel Edmundson past Jones. Just second before, Schwartz made contact with Couture, who had a partial breakaway before he went hard into the end boards feet first. No penalty was called on that play, but the Blues were called for interference and slashing in a span of 51 seconds to set up a Sharks 5-on-3. Related Articles San Jose Sharks reach last-minute settlement over Google’s downtown development NHL Draft Lottery: San Jose Sharks now know their chances of winning San Jose Sharks final grades: Too many key players fell short of expectations Items from Patrick Marleau’s historic night to be on display Bob Boughner believes associate coach will be an NHL bench boss soon The Sharks capitalized, as Burns found Pavelski near the side of the Blues net. Pavelski’s first two tries were stopped by goalie Jordan Binnington, but he batted the third try into the net for his fourth goal of the playoffs at the 11:24 mark. The Sharks were just 2-for-20 with the man advantage against the Avalanche and the Blues were one of the least penalized teams in the second round of the playoffs. But the Sharks had three power play tries in the first 25 minutes of Saturday’s game. “We’re going to play whistle-to-whistle the whole series, and if they want to take penalties like that, or penalties like at the end of the game, then we’ll let the refs take care of that,” Sharks coach Pete DeBoer said. “They told us they will and we’re expecting they will.”<doc-sep>Click to email this to a friend (Opens in new window) Click to share on Reddit (Opens in new window) Click to share on Flipboard (Opens in new window) Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window) Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window) Scoring is supposed to be hard in the Stanley Cup Playoffs. No one gives an inch and goalies somehow become better as the playoffs wear on. So when you see a player pull off an especially dirty move in, say, the Western Conference Final, it’s something to marvel at. And my, oh my, was Timo Meier‘s second-period goal in Game 1 against the St. Louis Blues something to behold. Logan Couture, who already had a nifty goal of his own in the game, forced the turnover that led to Meier undressing Jay Bouwmeester and then Binnington for good measure to make it 4-2 Sharks. Meier has two tucks and an assist in the game (he scored to make it 5-2 on a goal that he banked off the leg of Vince Dunn). The one-handed backhand has been duplicated many times since Peter Forsberg debuted the shenanigans back in 1994. Scott Billeck is a writer for Pro Hockey Talk on NBC Sports. Drop him a line at phtblog@nbcsports.com or follow him on Twitter @scottbilleck<doc-sep>The Western Conference final began on Saturday at SAP Center with a 6-3 win by the Sharks over the St. Louis Blues. We’ll get to that in a few. But before we do, one final note that’s related to the Sharks’ second-round opponent, the Colorado Avalanche. In late December, Colorado forward Mikko Rantanen was tearing up the league. In fact, he led the NHL in scoring at the Christmas break, with a whopping 59 points in just 37 games. Sure, he was benefiting from playing mostly on Nathan MacKinnon’s line, but Rantanen was showing to be just as much of a future star as perhaps MacKinnon was at the time. Timo Meier was having a breakout season in San Jose, too, with 18 goals and 34 points at the holiday break. But Sharks fans might still have felt a little queasy when looking at the rundown of the first round of the 2015 draft, when Rantanen was chosen by the Avalanche with the 10th overall pick.<doc-sep>
The Sharks took Game 1 of the Western Conference Final after Timo Meier and Logan Couture each scored a brace to guide San Jose to a 6-3 win. Sharks 6, Blues 3 (SJS leads 1-0) Timo Meier scored twice and added an assist. Logan Couture scored twice and added and assist. Martin Jones made 28 saves. The result? A convincing 6-3 win in Game 1 of the Western Conference Final. The Sharks did it all in the game, creating several turnovers that led to goals and taking advantage of other opportunities as they presented themselves. Couture opened the scoring in the first and closed it in the third while Meier scored back-to-back goals in the second period to propel San Jose to a win. [NBC 2019 STANLEY CUP PLAYOFF HUB] Three stars 1. Timo Meier, San Jose Sharks The play he made once the puck was on his stick off a turnover was sublime. He caught Jay Bouwmeester standing still and froze Jordan Binnington with the old one-handed backhand trick. Meier’s night would end with a two-goal, one-assist stat line, his fourth and fifth goals of the playoffs. 2. Logan Couture, San Jose Sharks Couture the Killer scored just 3:31 into the game as Gustav Nyquist dished the puck on an odd-man rush to an open No. 39 for his ninth of the postseason. Couture would add an empty netter in the third end with the same stat line as teammate Meier. Couture has been special in these playoffs, setting the tone for his team, among other things. 3. Martin Jones, San Jose Sharks It’s hard to believe there won’t be a round (or even a game) where people don’t doubt Jones’ goaltending abilities. His putrid regular-season numbers justify the uneasy feelings some have — as do the early games in Round 1 against the Vegas Golden Knights. But Jones has been solid since, and he stopped 28 of 31 in Game 1 of the WCF to quell the doubters once again. Jones was tested just seconds into the game when Alex Steen tried to muscle a backhand shot past him. Jones was able to swat out his blocker to make the save and settled in from there. Factoids Brent Burns of the @SanJoseSharks is the seventh different defenseman in NHL history age 34 or older to record 15+ points in a postseason. #NHLStats #StanleyCup pic.twitter.com/aXuJLec5KI — NHL Public Relations (@PR_NHL) May 12, 2019 Joe Thornton of the @SanJoseSharks recorded the 1,608th point of his NHL career (regular season and playoffs combined) and tied Bryan Trottier for the 16th-highest such total in League history. https://t.co/JbCfUnNWHG #NHLStats #StanleyCup pic.twitter.com/77ri2idZgQ — NHL Public Relations (@PR_NHL) May 12, 2019 Logan Couture of the @SanJoseSharks is the sixth active NHL player to reach the 10-goal mark in multiple postseasons. #NHLStats #StanleyCup pic.twitter.com/G5FyMs8xNL — NHL Public Relations (@PR_NHL) May 12, 2019 SUNDAY’S SCHEDULE Game 2: Carolina Hurricanes at Boston Bruins, 3 p.m. ET (NBC; Live stream) MORE: • Conference Finals schedule, TV info • PHT Conference Finals predictions • Conference Finals roundtable Scott Billeck is a writer for Pro Hockey Talk on NBC Sports. Drop him a line at phtblog@nbcsports.com or follow him on Twitter @scottbilleck