From: jca2@cec2.wustl.edu (Joseph Charles Achkar)
Subject: Blues beat Islanders 5-1  -- 12/31
Organization: Washington University, St. Louis MO
Date: Thu, 7 Jan 1993 05:33:43 GMT

12/31/92
--------------------------
By Jeff Gordon
Of the Post-Dispatch Staff
--------------------------

    At last -- 1992 is over for the Blues. They finished a most regrettable
year on a positive note Thursday night, stopping the New York Islanders 5-1 
before a standing-room-only crowd of 17,573 at The Arena.

    For two strong periods, the struggling Blues did some things well. They
hit. They checked. They killed penalties. They got Brett Hull a ton of scoring
chances.

    The bottom line: They got two power-play goals from  Hull, a short-handed
goal from Ron Wilson, a forechecking goal from Dave Lowry and a crash-the-net
goal from Ron Sutter.

    Curtis Joseph was brilliant in goal, which was fortunate. Once the Blues
got ahead 4-0 in the second period, the game opened up . . . and then Brendan
Shanahan detonated.

    Still harboring a grudge against Islanders defenseman Darius Kasparaitis,
who had checked Hull headfirst into the boards the last time the teams played,
Shanahan slugged him after taking a holding penalty. A melee ensued, and after
the ice was cleared referee Richard Trottier gave the Islanders a seven-minute
power play.

    The Islanders scored once on it -- on a blast by defenseman Vladimir
Malakhov -- and then continued to swarm the Blues in the third period.

    But Joseph saved the day.

    The Blues were desperate for points. They entered the game with 29 points,
the fifth-fewest in the National Hockey League. 

    They were 1-5-1 in their previous seven games overall and winless in their
last three home games.

    They had fallen back into the Norris Division cellar, one point behind
Tampa Bay and six points behind the Toronto Maple Leafs.

    The Blues gained a point on the Leafs, who tied Pittsburgh, and passed the
Lightning, 5-0 losers in Chicago.

    The Blues dominated the first period, outshooting the Islanders 14-7 and
taking a 1-0 lead on Ron Sutter's seventh goal of the season.

    Defenseman Jeff Brown created the chance by a ripping a low shot on goal.
Philippe Bozon pounced on the rebound in the slot and fired a shot that grazed
goaltender Glenn Healy and hit the right post. Sutter was there for the tap-in.

    The game could have got out of hand, but Healy kept the Islanders alive
with steady work. When Gary Nylund yanked down an exhausted Hull on a breakaway
-- Stephane Quintal's lead pass set it up -- Hull got the Blues' second penalty
shot in as many games.

    But Healy came out, hung with Hull and stopped his snap shot with his left
leg.

    Hull was busy throughout the period. Playing with center Kevin Miller and
left winger Lowry, he had three scoring chances on one early shift and five
shots in the period.

    Brown nearly beat Healy through the pads on a short-handed breakout set up
by Miller. On the one Blues power play of the period, Craig Janney was stopped
twice by Healy.

    Creeping into the slot, Quintal had a golden chance but Healy stopped him
after Shanahan created the play as he walked out from behind the net.

    But the Blues finally solved Healy in the second period.

    Wilson pounded home a short-handed goal with a long slap shot. The play
started when Bret Hedican hustled back and cut off Brian Mullen busting up the
left wing. Brown intercepted Mullen's centering pass and sent Miller up the ice
on a break.

    Miller left a pass for Wilson, who teed it up atop the left circle.

    Then Hull made it 3-0 with one of his classic one-time blasts on a power
play. Nelson Emerson carried the puck in and left it along the right boards to 
Janney, who found Hull in the right circle.

    Miller struck again to make it 4-0. He stole the puck in front of the
Islanders net and slid it over to Lowry for a tap-in behind the helpless Healy.

    With the Blues rolling, Shanahan sparked a melee with 2:20 left in the
period. The Blues killed off the first leg of the seven-minute power play, but
Malakhov scored at the end of the advantage and cut the Blues lead to 4-1.

    In the first 7 1/2 minutes of the third period, the Islanders outshot the
Blues 13-1.

    Hull gave the Blues some breathing room with his second power- play goal.
On a tic-tac-toe play, Brown faked a shot from straight away at the blue line
and fed Janney in the right circle. Janney found Hull in his office, the slot,
and he beat Denny Lorenz, who had replaced Healy to start the third period.

    For Hull, it was just his third multigoal game of the season; he has eight
at this point last season.

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