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Bourque's shorthanded goal lifts Blackhawks past Blues

Nov 10, 2007 - 5:05 AM CHICAGO (Ticker) -- In a game filled with power-play goals, a shorthanded tally decided the outcome.

Rene Bourque's shorthanded goal 16 seconds into the second period helped lead the Chicago Blackhawks to a 4-2 victory over the St. Louis Blues on Friday in a battle of Central Division rivals.

With the Blackhawks leading, 2-1, after one period, Bourque netted what proved to be the game-winning goal early in the second. Defenseman Duncan Keith skated in and lofted a shot from the left faceoff circle that deflected off Bourque's body and past goaltender Manny Legace.

"The puck actually hit me in the butt," Bourque said. "It's my first goal this year and I got it on a lucky bounce. I had a feeling it would come like that."

It was the third shorthanded goal Chicago has scored against St. Louis this season. Patrick Sharp had two shorthanded tallies in the third period to give the Blackhawks a 3-2 victory on Saturday.

Yanic Perreault added an empty-netter with 64 seconds remaining for Chicago, which has won four of its last five games. St. Louis dropped its third straight contest.

Rookie Patrick Kane and defenseman Jim Vandermeer recorded power-play goals just under three minutes apart in the first period to give Chicago a 2-1 advantage.

Kane, the first overall pick this past June, weaved his way into the offensive zone before wristing a shot from the left circle that beat Legace to the glove side with 4:06 to go in the period, knotting the game at 1-1.

"Everyone was kidding me on the bench that I scored on a 55 mile-per-hour changeup," Kane said. "Our guys said I must have caught Legace off-guard. I don't care, I'll take it."

Kane has recorded 13 of his team-leading 18 points at home this season. He has tallied five goals and nine assists in 13 games at the United Center.

"When we came out tonight, you could tell there was a lot of fans here," Kane said. "It just makes you want to play harder so this will continue to get more crowded. I'm enjoying playing in front of our fans."

Vandermeer scored his first goal of the season to give the Blackhawks a 2-1 lead with 71 seconds remaining in the session. The defenseman blasted a shot from the blue line that found its way past Legace, who was screened on the play.

"Now that I have a goal, I can go back to playing some tough defense," Vandermeer said. "I didn't get one (goal) until January last season, so this feels good."

After Bourque gave Chicago a 3-1 lead, David Perron halved the deficit for St. Louis with a power-play tally with 8:43 left in the second. Taking a pass at the left point, Perron skated into the left circle and wristed a shot past netminder Patrick Lalime.

"I had room coming off the boards, so I just went to the net," Perron said. "A hole opened up, so I just went for it. I didn't really notice the defenseman that was trying to block my shot."

Defenseman Steve Wagner opened the scoring at 11:27 of the first with his second goal of the season.

With St. Louis on the power play, Wagner received a drop pass from Perron and blasted a shot from the blue line that beat a screened Lalime to give the Blues a 1-0 lead.

Despite the fact his team scored first, St. Louis coach Andy Murray was disappointed in the early going.

"We didn't have a good start," he said. "Our forwards lacked intensity, and the best one was a 19-year-old kid (Perron)."

Legace agreed.

"We had four days off and we should have been ready to go," he said. "Give Chicago the credit, they played good."

Legace finished with 27 saves, while Lalime stopped 23 shots.