Blues Recap: Blues overcome endless trips to penalty box
Jeff Gordon Post-Dispatch Online Sports Columnist
updated: 04/14/2003 10:21 PM
The Blues weren't perfect Monday night. They spent too much time in the penalty box to earn the highest possible praise.
But they did play a solid, spirited game while dispatching the Vancouver Canucks 3-1 to take a two games-to-one lead in this first-round NHL series.
The Blues checked tenaciously, controlled play at even strength and won the battle of special teams.
They handled the absence of Norris Trophy candidate Al MacInnis for one game, anyway, getting especially strong games from Chris Pronger, Alexander Khavanov and Barret Jackman on defense.
Chris Osgood played another stout game in goal, too, as this resilient team took another stride toward becoming a real Stanley Cup contender.
Now, if they could only do something about all those needless penalties that leave them shorthanded way too often . . .
GETTING STARTED
The Blues talked a lot about staying out of the penalty box in Game 3 . . . and then they came out taking more penalties. Ryan Johnson got nabbed on a high sticking call and Valeri Bure gave the Canucks another quick power play by earning a slashing penalty.
This was definitely not the game plan. By managing to kill off those two penalties, though, the Blues gave themselves a chance to settle into the game.
BECOMING OFFENSIVE
As in Game 2, the Canucks didn't give the Blues get a whole lot of room to work at even strength. When the Blues weren't in the penalty box, though, they did a pretty good job creating some pressure with all their lines.
Had they hit the net instead of a couple of posts (Keith Tkachuk in the first period, Doug Weight in the third) this victory would have been an easy one.
GETTING DEFENSIVE
Well past the halfway mark of Game 3, the Canucks had just seven shots. Seven! The Blues played brilliant team defense, maintaining strong positioning, locking up would-be shooters off the puck, blocking shots and clearing rebounds.
Weight had a memorable rebound sweep in the first period, swiping a would-be goal out of harm's way at the very last second.
STRATEGY AND TACTICS
With MacInnis disabled and Jeff Finley back from the injured list, Coach Q paired Finley with Christian Laflamme, Khavanov with Bryce Salvador and Pronger with Jackman to start the game.
Working with the last player change, Quenneville was able to keep the Pronger/Jackman duo on Vancouver's top line. He also kept the Martin Rucinsky-Weight-Dallas Drake line out against the Todd Bertuzzi-Brendan Morrison-Markus Naslund line as much as possible.
SPECIAL SITUATIONS
The Blues broke the scoreless tie in the second period with an excellent power-play maneuver by Cory Stillman. On his forehand, he curled from the right side of the offensive zone to the middle of the ice ? then snapped a pass back toward Pavol Demitra at the right post.
Demitra slapped the bad-angle shot off Canucks goaltender Dan Cloutier into the net to give the Note a 1-0 lead.
We're always begging Weight to look for his own shot more ? and he did on the very next Blues power play, walking out from behind the net to fire the puck through Cloutier to push the Blues lead to 2-0.
(By the way, fans of high adventure certainly enjoy watching Weight work the right point while Khavanov works the left point. One never knows what they will do or where they will go.)
The Blues were absolutely brilliant on the penalty kill. Johnson, Drake, Weight, Tyson Nash, Shjon Podein . . . forwards on the kill did an excellent job breaking up plays and clearing the puck out of danger.
GETTING PHYSICAL
It didn't take long for the real fun to start. Salvador checked Canucks agitator Matt Cooke into the Blues bench early in the first period, then Tyson Nash did the same to Brent Sopel a few minutes later.
Pronger got into the spirit of the whole penalty killing thing, popping Bertuzzi in the melon in the second period and sending his helmet flying.
NET GAINS/LOSSES
Osgood made the big saves when he had to, like on Morrison's attempted rebound conversion with less than eight minutes left in the second period.
Ozzy stopped a Brent Sopel slap shot from the right point, then deftly slid to his right to keep Morrison from taking the rebound and reaching it around him. That timely stop kept the Blues in firm control of the game.