From: jca2@cec2.wustl.edu (Joseph Charles Achkar)
Subject: Blues tie Leafs 2-2  -- 1/2/93
Organization: Washington University, St. Louis MO
Date: Thu, 7 Jan 1993 05:35:09 GMT

1/2/93    BLUES TIE LEAFS 2-2
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By Jeff Gordon
Of the Post-Dispatch Staff
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    TORONTO -- For a guy who was getting rusty, Blues goaltender Guy Hebert
worked fairly smoothly Saturday night.

    Hebert stepped in for an injured Curtis Joseph with the Blues down 1-0 and
stopped 27  shots, earning  a 2-2 tie with the Toronto Maple Leafs.

    Brett Hull scored twice for the Blues -- Nos. 22 and 23, for only his
fourth multigoal game of the season. Rob Pearson and ex-Blue Doug Gilmour
scored for the Leafs.

    The tie kept the Blues five points behind the Leafs in the race for the
fourth and last Norris Division spot in the National Hockey League playoffs.

    Joseph left the game after 11 minutes 3 seconds with a strained left knee.
``I put a lot of pressure on it getting up in a scrum," Joseph said.
``Hopefully  will be three to six days. It was more precautionary than
anything."

    Despite spending the previous 11 games on the shelf, Hebert was outstanding
against the Leafs.

    ``It was one of those situations where you don't have time to be nervous,"
Hebert said. ``I've been waiting to play a game for quite awhile. If I play
well, maybe I'll get to play more games."

    Joseph has started 12 consecutive games -- and in his previous five games,
he stopped 173 of 184 shots, improving his save percentage from .878 to .890.

    That kept Hebert, who lost his last start 5-3 in Calgary on Dec. 4, on the
bench.

    ``He was going to start  in Buffalo, anyway," Blues goaltending coach Wayne
Thomas said. ``This game was a good warm-up for him. It probably helped him
that he was gearing up to play that game.

    ``I thought he handled things well. He has a history of doing really well
coming off the bench. He was more than solid. I thought the goaltending on both
ends was outstanding tonight."

    Leafs goaltender Grant Fuhr stopped 29 shots and helped Toronto extend its
unbeaten streak to four games.

    The Blues earned only their 11th road point of the season.

    ``It was a really big point, the difference between tying and losing,"
Hebert said.

    The Leafs jumped all over the Blues in the early going, and Joseph had to
be sharp to keep them from taking a 4-0 or 5-0 lead.

    Toronto's Glenn Anderson got behind Lee Norwood for a clean break-in on
right wing. Pearson walked out of the left corner, walked around Murray Baron
and tried a stuff shot.

    Dave McLlwain blasted an uncovered shot from the slot. Gilmour blew in on
left wing, fired one shot and then tried to convert his rebound. And defenseman
Dimitri Mironov tipped a shot right on goal on a short-handed breakout
facilitated by Jeff Brown's  turnover.

    All those shots were turned out by Joseph. He could not, however, stop
Pearson on the Leafs' first power play of the game. After Garth Butcher took a
roughing penalty, Pearson created his own scoring opportunity coming out of the
left corner.

    After Blues defenseman Bret Hedican went down to block his foray, Pearson
scooped up the loose puck, moved into the slot, measured his shot and whipped
it past Joseph.

    Hebert kept the Blues in the game with some calm play. He stopped Pearson
skating in. He stopped Mike Foligno skating in. He stopped Foligno on a
three-on-one break. He stopped Pearson from the high slot.

    Hull tied the game with 4:18 left in the second period. He parked in front
of the net and deflected Brown's right-point blast past Fuhr. The goal was
reviewed and upheld by the replay official, who ruled Hull didn't hit the puck
with a high stick.

    Less than two minutes later, Hull struck again with the sort of goal few
NHL players are capable of scoring.

    Kevin Miller whipped an innocent-looking pass out of the right corner into
the left circle. Looping from behind the net, Hull hammered a one-time blast
past Fuhr while falling down. That put the Blues up 2-1.

    ``I went completely out of the way to get free," Hull said. ``Millsy made a
great pass to me right across. And Millsy wouldn't have got the puck if Dave
Lowry wasn't in forechecking."

    But the Leafs caught the Blues and linesmen Mark Pare and Leon Stickle
napping before the end of the second period. With Anderson two strides offside
and trying to get back, ex-Blue Peter Zezel burst in on right wing and tried to
beat Hebert with a close-in shot.

    Hebert stopped him, but Gilmour converted the rebound on his second swipe,
tying the game 2-2.

    With 16:35 left in the game, Hebert was shaken up when two players drilled
him against the back of the net. But with Joseph gone, trainer Tom Nash
serviced Hebert, and he had to play on.

     The Leafs got back-to-back power plays in the latter part of the third
period, but the Blues killed both.

    With 1:15 left in the game, Pearson took a point-blank turnaround shot off
in a goal-mouth scramble, but it grazed the outside of the right post and the
game meandered into overtime.

    Bluenotes:  The Blues went with the lineup they used to beat the New York
Islanders 5-1 on Thursday, scratching veteran defensemen Rick Zombo and Curt
Giles, and forward Vitali Karamnov.

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