|
|
 |
 |   |
EVENTS Fantasy Central Inside Game Video Plus Statitudes Your Turn Message Boards Email Newsletters Golf Guide Cities 
CNNSI.com GROUP
COMMERCE | |
DETROIT (Ticker) -- Joe Louis Arena is not the place to venture for teams trying to end winless streaks. Steve Yzerman had a power-play goal and an assist and Dominik Hasek stopped 34 shots, leading the Detroit Red Wings to their sixth straight win, 3-1 over the St. Louis Blues, who have lost five in a row. Kris Draper and Brendan Shanahan also scored for Detroit, which also has won six consecutive home games and is 11-1 at Joe Louis Arena since dropping its home opener to Calgary. "We've been playing a lot of games, a lot of home games the first quarter of the season. Fortunately, we've been winning most of them," Red Wings defenseman Nicklas Lidstrom said. St. Louis continued to struggle offensively, getting only a first-period goal from Cory Stillman. The Blues have just one goal in their last three games and four during the losing streak. "Right now, with a team that's not scoring, you can see us squeezing, forcing things, not getting the bounces we'd like to say that we deserve," Stillman said. "I don't care about effort, we need to win," Blues captain Chris Pronger added. "We hit (Hasek) with a lot of shots, but who's to say (Chris) Osgood or (Manny) Legace wouldn't have done the same thing. We didn't get the lead with our power play and they did with theirs." Yzerman snapped a 1-1 tie 8:16 into the second period. Held without a point in his previous two games, he blasted a slap shot from the right point over the right shoulder of goaltender Fred Brathwaite for his seventh goal of the season and second on the power play. Yzerman also set up Shanahan's clincher 4:35 into the third period, giving him 48 goals and 79 assists in 115 games against St. Louis. Stillman put St. Louis in front at 4:37 of the first period, ending the Blues' scoring drought at 128 minutes, 19 seconds. He wristed a shot from the right faceoff circle that went off the shaft of defenseman Mathieu Dandenault's stick and deflected over Hasek's right shoulder. "It would have been nice to be the one who scored the goal that started our team rolling and we could have come up with two points," Stillman said. "It's the first time we had a lead in a while and we'll try to build from there." The lead lasted barely 7 1/2 minutes as Lidstrom took a slap shot from the left point that Draper deflected past Brathwaite for his seventh goal. The checking center had eight goals in 75 games last season. Yzerman's goal put the Red Wings in front, but St. Louis nearly tied it on the power play with 7:12 left in the second period. Hasek stopped Scott Mellanby's point-blank shot and got a piece of Pavol Demitra's try on the rebound as the puck hit the left goalpost. "Twice or three times, the post helped me out, and that's important in a game like that," Hasek said. "Even if I make a mistake like the one tonight, it seems like always someone steps up and scores two or three goals. It's a good feeling. You can make a mistake and still win the game. But my goal is not to make any mistakes." Shanahan finished off a 2-on-1 with 15:25 remaining for his 17th goal and Hasek nearly got an empty-netter in the final minutes after the Blues pulled Brathwaite for an extra attacker. "I was sort of thinking about it," Hasek admitted. "I got the puck and they were protecting the wall, so I tried to go to the middle. I didn't think I'd score a goal, but you never know. I think this was the first time I really tried to go for it." The loss was St. Louis' fourth straight in Detroit, where the Blues are just 1-10-2 since April 13, 1997. "It's a very frustrating time for us," said Brathwaite, who made 21 saves. "We're getting our chances, but we're missing open nets or I'm letting in untimely goals. I thought we played hard again tonight, but it obviously wasn't the outcome that we wanted."
|
