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Boyes too potent for Wild

Nov 23, 2008 - 6:20 AM By Brian Hall PA SportsTicker Contributing Writer

ST. PAUL, Minnesota (Ticker) -- The St. Louis Blues have been dealing with so many injuries, coach Andy Murray looks around his locker room and sees a few faces he does not even recognize. All of a sudden, though, the new reinforcements have mixed well with the healthy holdovers, and the team is enjoying the results.

Brad Boyes scored two goals Saturday as the Blues erased a deficit to post their third win in four games, a 2-1 victory over the Minnesota Wild.

Chris Mason, who missed time earlier this season due to an emergency appendectomy, stopped 31 shots for St. Louis, which has won three of four despite the need to fill holes in the lineup.

"This was my first win, and coming to a new team, it felt sometimes like I wasn't going to get one here," Mason said. "The guys did a great job. They let me see the shots, cleared the rebounds when they were sitting there."

Defenseman Erik Johnson was lost before the season with a knee injury, and both goaltenders have been out of the lineup. Rookie forwards T.J. Oshie and Patrik Berglund have missed time with injuries, Paul Kariya missed his seventh straight game Saturday with a lower body injury and first-line center Andy McDonald is out eight weeks after breaking his leg on Sunday.

"You can't replace hard work, and that's something guys are doing," Boyes said. "You can go down the list of all the guys that have been called up. Cam Paddock's played well since he's been called up. Those are big, but the big thing that's been consistent with those guys is, they are all working hard. That brings the energy to all of us, and that's what these wins have been for us."

"In our dressing room, I don't know some of the guys," Murray said. "You're playing one of the better teams in the NHL when you come in and play the Wild. You've got to battle for everything you get. If you pop in a goal, it's great."

Stephane Veilleux scored his second goal of the season and Niklas Backstrom made 24 saves for the Wild, who fell to 0-2-0 on their five-game homestand. Minnesota has endured back-to-back losses at home in regulation for the first time since November 21-23, 2007.

"We had a couple chances to score and didn't score," Minnesota coach Jacques Lemaire said. "I know we missed it when the game started and they got a couple of penalties. But we couldn't take advantage. We had a couple of chances, but not enough to get goals, I guess."

After posting a 3-2 overtime win at home over the Anaheim Ducks on Friday, St. Louis struggled out of the gate in this one. The Blues committed two penalties in the first three minutes of play and were outshot by the Wild, 11-4, in the first period.

"We came out and put a ton of pressure on them," Minnesota's Andrew Brunette said. "We are skating and got some opportunities and didn't really capitalize on those two power plays. We played OK. We just need more."

St. Louis' attack improved in the second, but not before Veilleux put Minnesota ahead 1:54 into the session.

However, Boyes struck just 46 seconds later to even the game.

Backstrom stopped the initial shot by Keith Tkachuk, but the rebound skipped free as Boyes was crashing the net. He stopped short of Backstrom, collected the loose puck and slid it past netminder's pad and into the open side of the net.

Minnesota had two chances to score later in the period but came up short each time. During a breakaway, defenseman Brent Burns flipped a backhander over Mason's pads, but the puck bounced off the crossbar and deflected wide.

A few minutes later on a power play, a scrum developed in front of the Blues' net and the goal light was turned on momentarily, but it was deemed inadvertent and play continued.

Boyes netted his second tally of the game - and 10th of the season - on the power play with just over seven minutes remaining in the middle session, unleashing a wrist shot that beat Backstrom to the glove side at 12:47 and gave St. Louis a 2-1 edge.

"It's huge, especially losing Andy the past couple of games. I definitely haven't been producing the way I should," Boyes said. "(Friday) was great. We had some guys step up, which was big. Myself and (Tkachuk), we're two big guys that need to contribute every night. Tonight, we got it done, and those are the things we need to do every game."

Backstrom was under pressure throughout the session as the Blues outshot the Wild, 16-8. It was Backstrom's second straight loss, marking the first time he has dropped consecutive games since last season's playoffs.

"Oh, they are, they are pressing, there's no doubt," Lemaire said of his team. "They feel a little pressure because they are not scoring goals 5-on-5. Now it seems our power play is suffering, too. So, you can't have both."