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Murray gets first win as Blues snap 11-game skid

Dec 20, 2006 - 5:10 AM PITTSBURGH (Ticker) -- It took five games, but Andy Murray finally got his first win.

Doug Weight had a goal and an assist and Bill Guerin added his 13th tally as the St. Louis Blues snapped an 11-game losing with a 4-1 victory over the surging Pittsburgh Penguins, who had not lost in five games.

Manny Legace and Jason Bacashihua combined to stop 25 shots for the Blues, who scored just six goals and went 0-2-2 in their first four games under Murray. Also with the victory, St. Louis ended its skid two losses shy from the franchise record set last season.

"We've been playing hard for him (Murray) and we finally get to reward him, and now we can look forward," St. Louis defenseman Barret Jackman said. "We've been so close and it's been real disappointing the last few games. But we didn't hang our heads and we came back out (tonight) and battled hard.

"We knew that Pittsburgh is a great offensive team and we knew that if we played a good defensive team game, we'd have a chance to win and we finally pulled it out."

The Penguins, who were 4-0-1 in their last five games, may have overlooked the lowly Blues, who did not waste any time, tallying 44 seconds into the contest.

"There are a lot of games we have to win; they're all big games," Pittsburgh coach Michel Therrien said. "No matter what, no matter who you play against, you have to win. It's unacceptable. As far as I'm concerned, we've got some loyal fans, the building is full, they come and support our team, and to have a performance like this. I'm really disappointed in a lot of guys."

Radek Dvorak dug the puck out of the right wing corner, skated behind the net and centered the puck to Weight, who was standing at the edge of the crease. Weight fired the puck high over the glove of Penguins goalie Marc-Andre Fleury.

St. Louis doubled its advantage less than five minutes later when Dan Hinote skated the puck behind the net. He brought it around, catching Fleury a bit out of position and was able to wrap the puck inside the post for his fourth goal of the season.

"My linemates did most of the work and got in front and I think (Fleury) was kind of down on the other side and I wrapped it in the far side and got lucky," Hinote said.

Ryan Johnson's third goal of the season, shorthanded at 6:01 of the second stanza, provided St. Louis a 3-0 lead. Fleury was pulled after the score in favor of Jocelyn Thibault.

Legace stopped all nine shots before departing after the first period with an apparent illness.

The Blues' defense did a great job on Sidney Crosby, who leads the league in scoring with 52 points, including three goals and 10 assists in his last four games.

"We wanted to stay in his face and not let him have that speed through the neutral zone," Jackman said. "Our forwards did a heck of a job coming back through the neutral zone picking up those late guys. Crosby's really good at finding guys whether it's on his backhand or forehand and guys really came back and took away his options."

"Obviously we had a bad start, we were down, 2-0, and then 3-0," Crosby said. "Second shift of the game, it was (my line) out there and I missed my man (and he scored) and then their third one was my fault, too. I screwed up a couple times so that didn't help."

Crosby assisted on rookie Evgeni Malkin's power-play goal, his 17th tally of the season, 4:06 into the third period, but Guerin rebuilt a three-goal edge 87 seconds later with his 13th tally.

"We got the 3-0 lead when they were on the power play, which was key," Murray said. "We had timely scoring tonight. After (Guerin's goal) they didn't have many chances; we did a great job through the neutral zone and turned them back.

In three career games against St. Louis, Crosby has no goals and two assists.