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Weight, Cajanek lead Blues past Red Wings

Nov 25, 2006 - 3:30 AM DETROIT (Ticker) -- Doug Weight's late-game magic put a damper on Chris Chelios' latest milestone.

Weight netted the shootout clincher after Petr Cajanek scored twice in the second period as the St. Louis Blues won for just the third time in 11 road games with a 3-2 victory over the Detroit Red Wings.

The loss spoiled a special night for Chelios, the league's oldest player at 44 who broke the NHL record for most games played by an American player (1,496), surpassing Phil Housley's mark.

After Martin Rucinsky beat goaltender Dominik Hasek in the first round of the shootout, Weight lifted a backhander into the top right corner to help the Blues end a five-game losing streak against the Red Wings.

"It's always nice to get the first goal in a shootout, especially when they go first and miss," Rucinsky said. "Its really hard for the other team to catch up. It was a pretty big win for us. I thought we played really good all the way around tonight."

An 11-time All-Star, Chelios is 11th on the all-time games list, 18 behind former Detroit captain Steve Yzerman.

Current captain Niklas Lidstrom tied the game on a power play with 8:17 left in the third period, netting his fifth goal of the season off Pavel Datsyuk's cross-crease pass.

The Blues opened the scoring at 1:24 of the second period when Dallas Drake found Cajanek, who fired a wrist shot from the top of the right faceoff circle that beat Hasek to the glove side.

"It's a big boost for him to come in tonight and score two goals, especially against Hasek," Rucinsky said.

Detroit needed just 2:39 to tie the score, 1-1, as Jason Williams made a centering pass from the right corner to Henrik Zetterberg, who knocked the puck past netminder Manny Legace for his seventh goal of the season.

Cajanek, who missed the last three games with a hip injury, quickly answered for St. Louis with his fourth tally of the campaign, a wrister from the slot that banked off the right goalpost.

"The two points are huge for us," Cajanek said. "I hope we can keep going like this. Every goal helps build the confidence. It's definitely nice to score two goals against a guy like that. It's huge."

Playing here for the first time after signing with the Blues as a free agent in August, Legace made 41 saves against his former team, raising his record to 5-6-1 this season.

"It was nice to be back in front of the fans," said Legace, who was 37-8-3 with the Red Wings last season. "I saw some signs in the warmup. It brought some tears to my eyes. They missed me and that touched me. They treated me well here. I love it here."

Hasek stopped only 17 shots for the Red Wings, who have lost four in a row for the first time since November 13-19, 2005.

"We have good shooters and we have good goaltending," Detroit coach Mike Babcock said after the Red Wings slipped to 0-3 in shootouts. "You get a skilled guy against a goaltender and you get your best shot. The last shootout we went through seven guys. It isn't like I've gone through it all already."