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Blues offensive barrage ends Blackhawks' winning streak

Feb 20, 2008 - 6:36 AM ST. LOUIS (Ticker) -- The St. Louis Blues scored five unanswered goals to end the Chicago Blackhawks' three-game winning streak with a 5-1 triumph on Tuesday night.

Brad Boyes scored the go-ahead tally midway through the second period and Keith Tkachuk had one goal and two assists for St. Louis, which tallied three power-play goals for the second straight game.

Lee Stempniak scored and Barret Jackman, Martin Rucinsky and rookie Erik Johnson all had multi-point games for the Blues, who had also skated to a 5-1 victory over the Columbus Blue Jackets on Sunday.

"It was a big game for us," Stempniak said. "We got great goaltending (and) solid defense. You can't win a game and then lose a game."

The Blackhawks, who had scored eight first-period goals during their winning streak, jumped out in front early in this one.

Martin Havlat put the Blackhawks on the board just 65 seconds into the contest, scoring his third goal in his last four games. Havlat received a pass from Tuomo Ruutu and had his initial shot stopped by All-Star goaltender Manny Legace, but knocked home the rebound to give Chicago a 1-0 advantage.

The Blues took over from there as Jackman evened the score for St. Louis midway through the first period, tallying just his second goal of the season. On the power play, the Blues defenseman wristed a shot in from the left point that was deflected in front by a Chicago player, tying the game at 1-1 with 9:12 left in the period.

"We're playing desperate hockey right now," Jackman said. "We know we have to get as many points as possible. We gotta go out there and play better every night, picking up the intensity."

Boyes put St. Louis in front with his team-leading 32nd goal just over eight minutes into the second period. Andy McDonald fired the puck over near the endline to Paul Kariya, who fed Boyes who easily tapped home the go-ahead tally as goaltender Patrick Lalime was caught out of position.

Stempniak pushed the advantage to 3-1 on a power play midway through the third period, sliding the puck into the open net after Rucinsky's wrister was deflected right to him near the left post.

"It was sort of a broken play, the puck wound up on my stick in the slot," Stempniak said. "It's nice to score, it was a 2-1 game at the time - you take those goals every day of the week."

Tkachuk scored the third power-play goal for the Blues at the 12:26 mark of the third period and Jay McClement added an empty-net goal with 2:32 remaining to cap the scoring for St. Louis.

"I thought we were pretty assertive up ice," St. Louis coach Andy Murray said. "I thought our forecheck was pretty good today."

St. Louis, which had netted three power-play goals for the first time in 79 contests in the win against Columbus on Sunday, finished 3-of-6 with the man-advantage against Chicago.

"We've had those chances (power play) all year, it just hasn't gone in for us," Murray said. "I don't know what the difference is, we're not doing anything different - pucks are just going in for us right now."

Legace finished with 19 saves for the Blues, while Lalime stopped 32 shots for the Blackhawks.

Chicago coach Denis Savard noted that conditioning may have played a role with his team on Tuesday.

"We've got guys just coming back from injuries, and at some point, it's going to be a little tougher for them," Savard said. "It's tough when you're out.

"You've got lots of adrenaline going early but it catches up."