The St. Louis Blues didn't wait long to name their starting goalie for Game 5, as head coach Ken Hitchcock announced Sunday that Jake Allen will remain in goal for the next installment of the Western Conference final on Monday.
Allen stopped 28 of the 31 shots he faced in his first playoff start of 2016 on Saturday- a 6-3 Blues victory, that leveled their series with the San Jose Sharks at two games apiece.
The 25-year-old has manned the Blues' crease since replacing Brian Elliott during the third period of Game 3. After backstopping his team through the first two rounds, Elliott has just an .899 save percentage across his first three games of the conference final.
Despite his slight dip in form, Hitchcock insists the goalie change has nothing to do with Elliott's performance.
"You need a good goalie and we had a really good goalie playing (Elliott), but we were relying on the good goalie all the time," Hitchcock said, per NHL.com's Lou Korac. "We weren't playing for Ells. We were relying on him, and there's a big difference."
Hitchcock also said he would have an update on forwards David Backes and Robby Fabbri on Monday. Both players left Game 4 with injuries, but the Blues coach did say that both are expected to be fine for Game 5.
