March Madness continued at the HP Pavilion as the San Jose Sharks picked up their fourth straight win after defeating the St. Louis Blues 5-2 tonight. 

Both defenseman Tom Preissing and forward Steve Bernier netted in two goals a piece to help the Sharks advance in their hunt for a playoff spot.

“The second one I almost took [Grant] Stevenson’s head off when I shot it, but he got away thankfully,” said Pressing.  “I was just coming inside the blueline and all of a sudden my eyes got really big because the puck was right there.   That was like a practice play where the coach kind of lays one nice out there and you shoot as hard as you can.”

Preissing picked up three points on the night, and had his first multi-goal game of his career.

“It was one of those days where every place I turned, the puck was coming to me at a soft speed,” said Preissing.

Preissing’s goals tied the game on two different occasions, one in the first period and the second blast coming midway through the second period.

Both Scott Young and Trent Whitfield scored for the Blues, one in the first period and the other in the second period respectively.

“We know we didn’t come out strong in the first period,” said Sharks forward Steve Bernier.

The pivotal moment of the game came after Preissing’s second goal, when the Blues almost took the lead for the third time, but fell short instead.  The Blues wore out the Sharks’ defense and almost came close when the puck nearly went in past goalie Vesa Toskala.  Sharks’ captain Patrick Marleau prevented the goal from happening and created a counterattack the other way with linemates Milan Michalek and Bernier.

“That was kind of a turning point,” said head coach Ron Wilson.  “We were having a bad shift and got lucky.  Instead of being down 3-2, we found ourselves up 3-2.  We caught a bit of a break and that seemed to get us going obviously.”

After receiving a pass from Michalek at the blueline, Marleau weaved a pass to Bernier who one-timed the shot past goalie Patrick Lalime. 

“That was a big goal for us tonight,” said Bernier. “I think that’s what changed the momentum of the game.”

Bernier picked up the second goal on a very fundamental hockey play.  After defenseman Christian Ehrhoff fired a slapshot on the powerplay, Bernier picked up the rebound and netted in his sixth goal of the season. 

Joe Thornton and Jonathan Cheechoo continued upward movement in the stats department.  Cheechoo picked up his 41^st goal of the season and Thornton moved up to 97 points on the season with his two assists on the night.

Toskala continued to shine stopping 27 shots, with 14 shots coming in the second period.  With the win, Toskala improved to 8-1-1 in his last ten starts.

The Sharks will face-off against the Dallas Stars in the fifth game of the six-game homestand this Saturday at 1 p.m.