The Blues began their 20th consecutive Stanley Cup playoffs in the
desert, a traditional setting for hockey. The Blues have met the
Coyotes before in the post-season. They outscored them 20-13 en
route to a 3-1 series victory, their only post-season series
against them. Of course, that was back in 1982 and the team was
from Winnipeg, but you get the picture.
The Blues did win the season series against these Coyotes 2-1-1,
but, as everybody knows, that doesn't mean anything once the fight
for Lord Stanley's Cup commences.
Game One: The Al MacInnis Show starring Al MacInnis
People around the NHL have always feared the slap shot of Al
MacInnis.
They see him display it in skills competitions. They see him display
it at the red line, especially Chris Osgood. Nikolai Khabibulin saw
it early in the series.
Just 2:22 into the game, MacInnis showed his weapon for all to see,
blasting a fireball from the blue line and into the Coyote net
powering the Blues to a 3-1 lead and a 1-0 lead early in the
best-of-seven series.
"I got kind of lucky," MacInnis said. "I don't think you're going to
score too many from out there on Khabibulin."
MacInnis also showed his stick's ability to pass the puck as he
added helpers to his resume for a three-point night. Jaime Rivers
released a shot of his own from the blue line on a power play late
in the second. Terry Yake and MacInnis set up Rivers, who broke the
"Bulin Wall" for a 2-0 lead. Robert Reichel's goal with 1:58 left
in regulation could only ruin Grant Fuhr's shut out. Fuhr stopped
26 of 27 shots to give the Blues a 1-0 series lead.
Scott Pellerin scored his first goal of the post-season on an
empty-netter with 42 seconds left.
Game Two: Finley! What Are You Doing???
The Blues are hot. They won their fourth straight game with their
Game One victory over Phoenix and looked to be unbeatable.
Grant Fuhr was unbeatable. Al MacInnis was unstoppable.
Unfortunately for St. Louis, the Coyotes were unflappable.
The Blues took the lead on the Coyotes twice during regulation, with
Phoenix overcoming the one-goal deficit both times. Then, the
Coyotes took the lead but the Blues came back to tie. Finally, the
Coyotes took the lead. This time for good. The goal came in
overtime.
Shane Doan's wrap-around 8:58 into overtime that he jammed between
the left post and Jeff Finley's right leg, behind Grant Fuhr and
barely over the goal line gave Phoenix a 4-3 victory and tied their
best-of-seven series at a game a piece.
"I think it went off Fuhr's skate," Doan said. "It was just sitting
there. I only had to move it an inch. My heart was pounding, but I
made sure I wasn't in the crease beforehand."
The Coyotes' first lead of the series came with 5:34 left in
regulation when Keith Carney beat Blues' goalie Grant Fuhr. The
lead only lasted 2:16. On the power play, Pavol Demitra tied the
game at 3-3 with his long-awaited first goal of the playoffs from
Al MacInnis and Scott Young.
For the second straight game, MacInnis factored in on every one of
St. Louis' goals. He scored the game's opening tally 5:31 in and
helped out Pierre Turgeon on his goal 12:43 into the second they
put the Blues back on top.
Grant Fuhr stopped 24 of the shots he faced for his first loss of
the post-season. The Blues outshot Phoenix 34-28.
Game Three: So Close...Yet So Far Away
Grant Fuhr is 36 years old.
My dad is 47.
My dad still has a couple of years left in him. He's been working
with the same power company near where I grew up throughout his
adult life. He gets up every morning and goes to work, not affected
by his age.
Grant Fuhr is old. Very, Very old. But that's in the eyes of the
hockey world.
In Game Three of the Blues' series with Phoenix, he looked very old.
Fuhr gave up three goals in the first 8:31 before getting benched in
favor of Jaime McLennan...for 27 seconds. Then, Fuhr returned only to
be pulled again 2:35 into the second when Phoenix took a 4-0 lead on
only 10 shots.
Then, came the damn-near impossible dream.
Oleg Tverdovsky decided to kindly picked up a high-sticking double
minor. Remember last year when Sean O'Donnell jumped Geoff
Courtnall and the Blues scored three goals during the five-minute
major. Same thing happened...sort of.
It took Pavol Demitra 51 seconds to capitalize to give the Blues its
first goal at 4-1. Just 12 seconds later, working on the second
power play, Terry Yake brought the Blues within two. With Keith
Tkachuk in the box for hooking five minutes into the third, Geoff
Courtnall scored his first of the post season, beating Khabibulin
to pull St. Louis within one at 4-3. The goal marked St. Louis's
third goal in a 7:08 span.
Then the "Bulin Wall" closed.
Khabibulin held off 17 of the 19 shots the Blues fired at him in the
third period, with the only other goal coming from Blair Atcheynum
with 15 seconds left.
The Coyotes rode Khabibulin to a 5-4 victory and a two games to one
series lead.
Louie DeBrusk scored twice in the game, his first points of the
season.
The Blues outshot Phoenix 38-18 during the game and went 3-for-7 on
the power play, but couldn't complete the comeback and force
overtime.
Jaime McLennan had a couple shots of his own, but these weren't the
kind that end up on the scoreboard. McLennan vs. Robert Reichel was
the main event of a ruckus midway through the second that saw eight
players receive penalties.
"Tkachuk got knocked into me and I fell on him and we were both down
there," McLennan said. "I think he ended up coming up swinging at
somebody and somebody gave me a bump from behind and then I don't
know, it just kind of ended up getting silly."
But the silliness ended when talk turned to Grant Fuhr's starting
future in the playoffs. Due to the poor play of Fuhr, Blues head
coach Joel Quenneville refused to say whether Fuhr would star Game
Four.
"We'll think about it," Quenneville said. "Grant's been very good
for us."
