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Blues get rare boost from power play, hold off Red Wings

Nov 14, 2007 - 6:22 AM ST. LOUIS (Ticker) -- The St. Louis Blues' anemic power play finally came alive.

St. Louis scored three goals - two with the man advantage - in less than three minutes of the second period to chase Dominik Hasek and post a 4-3 victory over the Detroit Red Wings on Tuesday.

Rookie David Perron scored two of the Blues' four second-period goals and Jamal Mayers netted the go-ahead tally to help St. Louis stop a season-high three-game skid.

Prior to that explosion, the Blues had converted just 13 percent (9-for-68) of their power-play opportunities this season. They went 2-for-5 with the man advantage in this one.

"We got the start we wanted, emotionally," St. Louis coach Andy Murray said. "We came in the dressing room and I said, 'This is the Minnesota game (3-2 win on November 1),' which I thought was our best game of the year."

Meanwhile, Detroit's Henrik Zetterberg failed to extend his franchise-record, season-opening points streak to 18 games. The Swede entered tied with Pittsburgh's Sidney Crosby for the league lead with 27 points.

The Blues trailed, 2-0, after one period, but Keith Tkachuk halved the deficit with a power-play tally at 5:09 of the second. Perron tied the the game at 2-2 with 6:46 left in the period by beating Hasek between the pads on a breakaway.

The 26th overall pick in this past June's draft gave St. Louis a 3-2 edge 93 seconds later with a man-advantage tally. Rookie defenseman Steve Wagner - who had two assists - blasted a slap shot that was stopped, but Perron snuck behind defenseman Chris Chelios and Hasek to tap in the loose puck at 14:47 for his fourth goal of the season.

Perron, awaiting a decision on whether he will be returned to Lewiston of the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League, tried to show the level head of a player mature beyond his years.

"It's never done 'til it's done" Perron said. "You always have to prove something. Even if I stay the whole year, I still have to prove that the team made a good decision. I'm trying to play those kinds of games, like I did tonight, every night."

Mayers stretched the lead to 4-2 with a wrist shot from the right faceoff circle that beat Hasek just 64 seconds later. That spelled the end of the night for the six-time Vezina Trophy winner, who stopped just eight shots.

"You need a little bit of luck and we needed contributions from other guys," Mayers said. "We got that."

Mayers' goal proved to be crucial as Valtteri Filppula pulled the Red Wings within 4-3 at 15:13 with his third of the campaign.

Pavel Datsyuk and Daniel Cleary staked the Red Wings to a 2-0 advantage with first-period tallies.

"It's disappointing," Detroit coach Mike Babcock said. "Let's not kid ourselves. We're up 2-0, we're on the road in our division. You've got to find a way to keep on going. We've been guilty a few times of not having that killer instinct. We've got to put our foot on them and not let them up, and we didn't do that."

Former Red Wing Manny Legace made 26 saves for St. Louis, which was outshot, 29-16.

Chris Osgood turned aside all four shots he faced in relief for the Red Wings, who have lost two straight following a nine-game winning streak.