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Stempniak helps lift Blues to second straight win

Dec 22, 2006 - 5:10 AM ST. LOUIS (Ticker) -- Thanks in part to Lee Stempniak, the St. Louis Blues snapped a long home losing skid.

Stempniak had a goal and an assist and Radek Dvorak added a pair of assists as the Blues posted a 5-2 triumph over the Los Angeles Kings.

David Backes, Martin Rucinsky, Barret Jackman and Jay McClement also scored for St. Louis, which snapped a seven-game home losing streak.

"It's really satisfying right now," Stempniak said. "We went out and put two games together where we played all 60 minutes. The first couple of games with coach (Andy) Murray, we were playing well but not quite well enough to win. It's really good to get a great team effort and have all four lines playing well.

"I think the win on Tuesday (against Pittsburgh) helped us a lot. We got that winning taste. We knew we could win games and got that winning feeling back. I think it helped calm us down this time."

The Blues improved to 2-2-2 since Murray took over for Mike Kitchen as coach on December 11.

"We didn't have a great second period," Kings coach Marc Crawford said. "We were just trying to make too many cute plays and too many perfect plays. We are a team that has to generate a lot of chances. We have to be pretty basic in how we play.

"We made a couple of mistakes tonight and they ended up in the back of our net. It's discouraging. ... We just have to face facts. We're not a team that has the luxury of being able to deviate from a plan."

Stempniak gave the Blues a 2-0 lead at 6:10 of the second period when he snapped the puck over goaltender Dan Cloutier's shoulder from the slot.

"It was a great play by (Barrett Jackman)," Stempniak said. "We were trying to hem them in on a change. They tried to sneak in a quick line change and Jack turned it up quick. I just tried to get the shot off before they were going to cut me off."

After Los Angeles scored two quick goals to slice its deficit to 3-2, Stempniak later assisted on McClement's tally at 9:37 of the third period.

"Obviously, that fourth goal was a key goal," Murray said. "Even after the timeout, we were under pressure for a bit. Some good resiliency there and getting a big win."

Manny Legace recorded 23 saves for the Blues, who last won on home ice on November 12 against Edmonton. They have won two straight for only the third time this season.

"The boys are playing unbelievable," Legace said. "They bought into the system that the coaches brought in. They are playing solid defensively. The forwards are coming back unbelievably hard and helping us out. It's a huge world of a difference.

"It's fun to play now. This coaching staff tunes into every little fine detail and it's nice to watch them work."

Anze Kopitar and Derek Armstrong scored and Cloutier made 17 saves for Los Angeles, which is 1-3-1 in its last five contests.

"We said that everything was going to go to the net," Kopitar said. "We scored two quick ones but then they came with one and it kind of put us down. It was kind of hard to get back again. It was a good period, but we're going to have to build the next game on that one."