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RECAP
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BOX SCORE
ST. LOUIS (AP) -- Pierre Turgeon said the St. Louis Blues felt a
sense of urgency on Saturday night.
"You lose a couple of games and it makes you realize that you
have to work to win hockey games," said Turgeon, who had a goal
and an assist to help the Blues to a 5-1 victory over the Minnesota
Wild on Saturday night. "It doesn't matter who you are playing
against."
|  | | Brad Bombardir, left, and the Wild saw their eight-game unbeaten streak end at the hands of the Blues on Saturday. |
The loss snapped the Wild's eight-game unbeaten streak. With a
win or a tie, the Wild would have tied an NHL record for the
longest unbeaten streak by an expansion team set by the 1993-94
Florida Panthers.
"As you can see, our team finds it very difficult to play
them," said the Wild's Scott Pellerin. "We couldn't do anything.
It was a very frustrating evening."
The Blues beat former teammate Jamie McLennan, who started in
goal for the Wild. St. Louis outshot Minnesota 34-7 during the
first two periods and recorded a season-high 50 shots. McLennan was
pulled after the second period in favor of Manny Fernandez.
"He (McLennan) saw enough pucks," Minnesota coach Jacques
Lemaire said.
Dallas Drake also had a goal and an assist for the Blues. Mike
Eastwood, Al MacInnis and Pascal Rheaume all scored, and goalie
Roman Turek made 20 saves for the Blues. Andy Sutton scored his
second goal for the Wild's only tally.
"Tonight for two periods, they didn't play in our zone," Turek
said. "Probably a couple of times I stopped the puck behind the
net and that was it. In the third period, they were more
aggressive."
Meanwhile, St. Louis got off to a quick start, thanks to a
short-handed goal by Eastwood 2:01 in. Eastwood stole the puck from
Jim Dowd at the Minnesota blue line and broke in alone down the
left side. He cut to the middle and slid the puck under McLennan
for his fourth goal.
McLennan barely had time to recover from that when Turgeon
scored his 18th goal 53 seconds later. Bryce Salvador's shot from
the left point was stopped by McLennan, but Drake cleared the
rebound to Turgeon at the side of net and he put it over McLennan.
"The first couple of shifts we had were good," Turgeon said.
"It seems like every time we get that first goal, we get the
momentum going and we play with confidence."
After Sutton made it 2-1 on a screen shot at 6:59 of the second,
the same combination worked again for the Blues. This time, Turgeon
centered from behind the net to Drake, who beat McLennan with
another high shot at 11:31 of the period for his eighth goal.
MacInnis gave the Blues a three-goal lead when he scored his
eighth goal on a slap shot from the right circle with 1:49
remaining in the second. Rheaume scored a power-play goal at 9:47
of the third to make it 5-1.
Game notes
McLennan, who backed up Turek last year, had his record
fall to 1-13-6. However, his teammates have scored just 23 goals in
McLennan's 20 starts. ... With the win, Blues coach Joel
Quenneville clinched the coaching spot for the North American team
at the upcoming All-Star game. ... The slow start was unusual for
Minnesota, which had been leading or tied with the opposition after
the first period in 27 of its last 28 games entering the contest.
... St. Louis has not lost more than two straight since a four-game
slide March 4-11, 1999. ... Minnesota has lost just six games by
more than two goals. ... The Blues are 20-1-2 when they allow two
goals or less.
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ALSO SEE
NHL Scoreboard
Minnesota Clubhouse
St. Louis Clubhouse
RECAPS
New Jersey 5
NY Rangers 5
Colorado 2
Carolina 2
Phoenix 2
NY Islanders 1
Ottawa 4
Montreal 3
Atlanta 2
Philadelphia 2
Washington 3
Toronto 2
Dallas 4
Boston 0
Buffalo 2
Nashville 0
St. Louis 5
Minnesota 1
Los Angeles 5
Calgary 0
Vancouver 4
Columbus 3
San Jose 3
Florida 1
AUDIO/VIDEO
 The Blues' Mike Eastwood steals the puck from Jim Dowd and goes in for the score.
avi: 501 k
RealVideo: 56.6 | ISDN | T1
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