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Weight, Guerin deliver as Blues snap three-game slide

Nov 3, 2006 - 3:54 AM ST. LOUIS (Ticker) -- Doug Weight continues to prove that sometimes it's better to give than receive.

Weight matched his career high with four assists and Bill Guerin scored twice as the St. Louis Blues snapped a three-game losing streak with a crisp 4-1 victory over the Colorado Avalanche.

A 15-year veteran with 239 career goals, Weight has yet to tally in his first 12 games this season. However, he leads the Blues with nine assists and owns a respectable plus-4 rating on a team that has lost eight of its first 12 games.

"It's important for me to find guys and give them the puck," Weight said. "I'm not a goal scorer."

St. Louis entered Thursday with three straight defeats before putting together perhaps its most complete game of the young season.

After Dan Hinote opened the scoring midway through the first period, Guerin made it 2-0 less than two minutes into the middle session. Weight held the puck behind the net before slipping a pass to the slot for Guerin, who drilled a one-timer past goaltender Peter Budaj.

"As the year goes along, I want to be more a part of the offense," Weight said. "We've been doing better together the last four or five games."

Defenseman Ken Klee drew Colorado within 3-1 late in the second period, but Guerin ended any hopes of a comeback with 2:35 remaining in the contest, burying a rebound of a shot by Weight.

"We're not used to (getting a three-goal lead)," Blues coach Mike Kitchen said. "We still have a lot to work on, but we're moving forward."

Blue-liner Bryce Salvador also scored and Martin Rucinsky collected a pair of assists for St. Louis, which received a sturdy 44-save performance from Manny Legace.

"(The Avalanche) keep coming. All four of their lines just fly," said Legace, who made at least 12 saves in every period. "I knew it was going to come. I like seeing shots, but not that many."

Legace improved to 9-1-0 in his career against Colorado. He has allowed a total of 21 goals in 11 lifetime games against the Avalanche.

"It was his best game this year," Kitchen said. "He controlled rebounds and that prevents second chances. We need more consistent goaltending like that."

Budaj turned aside 25 shots for the Avalanche, who went 0-for-5 on the power play after scoring at least one man-advantage goal in each of their last five games.

"Their goalie saw a lot of pucks," Colorado coach Joel Quenneville said. "We didn't get a lot of second chances and when we did get the second chances, we didn't finish them."

"We had a lot of good chances in the second period," Avalanche defenseman Patrice Brisebois added. "We could at least have four or five goals but Legace stopped everything. He kept his team in the game. I think they win that game because of him."