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Stempniak's clutch goals lift Blues over Bruins

Oct 13, 2006 - 3:32 AM ST. LOUIS (Ticker) -- The St. Louis Blues finally got their first victory - and they did it in dramatic fashion.

Lee Stempniak ignited a two-goal rally late in the third period and netted the game-winner in the shootout to lift the Blues to a come-from-behind 3-2 victory over the Boston Bruins.

The victory came with a sigh of relief from the Blues, who had only scored five goals in their first three games and were blanked for the majority of this one.

"It's about time we got it right, especially as hard as we worked," left wing Keith Tkachuk said.

After Boston's Marco Sturm and Tkachuk traded shootout goals, Stempniak skated in on Boston goaltender Tim Thomas and beat him on the backhand in the fourth round of the shootout to give the Blues the edge.

St. Louis netminder Manny Legace, who finished with 16 saves, stopped Marc Savard to preserve the victory.

"I just tried to be patient," Legace said. "These guys are so skilled, they can put it under the crossbar in a minute. I was just lucky to get a piece of three of them."

The Blues trailed, 2-0, late in the third period before tying the game on goals from Stempniak at 16:03 and Jamal Mayers at 18:33.

"It was a great play by Billy (Guerin)," Stempniak said of his tally. "I slid it to Billy, and he tried getting the wraparound. It ended up being passed right to me, so it was an open net."

Boston, which went 0-for-7 on the power play, initially took a 2-0 lead on tallies from Patrice Bergeron and Savard.

St. Louis, which opened the season with three straight losses, has scored just eight goals in its four contests.

Thomas finished with 33 saves for Boston, which has lost three of its first four games.

It was an especially painful defeat for Bruins coach Dave Lewis, whose team was in control until the Blues stormed them in the final five minutes of the third period.

"As a group, I thought we played textbook hockey for 55 minutes," Lewis said. "We were in control of the whole game, until the end."