Brian Elliott yanked as Blues fall behind Stars early in Game 6

St. Louis Blues starting goaltender Brian Elliott was yanked in favor of Jake Allen with 3:11 left in the first period of Game 6 against the Dallas Stars. At the time, Elliott had given up three goals, two of which coming 20 seconds apart in the first six minutes of the game.

The Blues outshot the Stars 9-7 in the first period, which made the situation all the more troubling for Elliott and St. Louis. After one period the Stars were up 3-0. The Blues are currently up 3-2 this series and have a chance to clinch a trip to the Western Conference Final on home ice.

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First, Stars forward Mattias Janmark ripped a shot high glove side off a rush to make it 1-0 just 4:53 into the game.

Then 20 seconds later, Dallas forward Vernon Fiddler deflected a feed from Colton Sceviour in front of Elliott to put the game at 2-0.

Jason Spezza’s toe-drag goal at the 16:49 mark was probably the deciding factor for coach Ken Hitchcock to make the move. 

Elliott had been sound this series leading up to Game 6 with a 1.92 goal against average and .937 save percentage.

This is similar to what happened last series in Game 6 against the Chicago Blackhawks. There, Elliott wasn’t yanked, but he allowed five goals in 35 shots on goal as the Blues were beat 6-3. In that game St. Louis had a chance to clinch the series.

Elliott came back with a 31-save performance in Game 7 to beat the Blackhawks.

This game is still a long way from over, but that’s not the start the Blues needed in order to punch their ticket to the Western Conference Final.

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Josh Cooper is an editor for Puck Daddy on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at puckdaddyblog@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter! Follow @joshuacooper