From: jca2@cec1.wustl.edu (Joseph Charles Achkar)
Subject: Blues lose to Kings 6-3
Keywords: Blues, Kings, Brett Hull
Organization: Washington University, St. Louis MO
Date: Mon, 14 Dec 1992 15:03:39 GMT


  Backup Goalie Robb Stauber stopped 44 of 47 Blues shots as the LA Kings
beat the Blues Saturday night at the Great Western Forum. The Blues played
a very strong game and could have won it but Stauber was unbelievable.

The Kings scored very early in the first period after some hard forechecking
by John McIntyre. He controlled the puck and held off Blues defenseman Rick
behind the net, then slid a pass between Brett Hull's legs to Marty McSorley
in the slot. McSorley snapped a shot between Joseph's pads to give the Kings
a 1-0 lead at 1:13. After that goal, the Blues totally outplayed the Kings
for the rest of the period. The Blues allowed only one shot on a four-on-
three Kings power play, and LA goalie was a stone wall rejecting all kinds
of Blues chances. He made a sliding save on Nelson Emerson and stopped point
blank shots by Ron Sutter and Brett Hull. He also had luck on his side when
a shot by Emerson hit the goalpost and Miller's shot hit the crossbar.

Hull finally tied the game with 2:50 left in the period. Kevin Miller mucked
along the boards with Charlie Huddy, then deftly sneaked a backhand pass to
Hull off the boards for a break-in. Hull wiggled away from Huddy, charged the
net and flipped a wrist shot over Stauber's blocker to tie the game at 1-1.
The Blues outshot the Kings 11-6 in the first period.

The Blues outplayed and outshot the Kings 21-15 in the second period but 
two serious breakdowns and a bad bounce led to three unanswered Kings goals. 
The Blues Russian line of Prokhorov-Korolev-Karamnov had tons of chances as
they dazzled the Kings' defensemen with their skating and puck control but
Stauber was once again incredible. After the Blues pressure, Luc Robitaille
made a nice play to setup his teammates. He made a quick pass to McSorley
in the Kings' zone that created a two-on-one for McSorley and Millen. 

McSorley waited for Joseph to challenge him, then slid a pass past Jeff Brown
to Millen, whose backhand just got inside the post to give the Kings a 2-1 
lead at 8:41. Ron Sutter apparently tied the game 2-2 a minute later, but
referee Ron 'The Horrible' Hoggarth waved off the goal. Stauber got a glove
on Kevin Miller's hard slap shot from the slot but never controlled the puck.
It bounced off him and Sutter smacked it loose into the net. Hoggarth ruled
that the whistle had already blown. What a bad call !!!

Luck wasn't on the Blues side tonight. Huddy's dump-in into the Blues' zone  
took a bad bounce off the corner and bounced to Pat Conacher in the slot. The
bad bounce caught Joseph out of position behind the net, and Conacher put the
the puck into an empty net at 10:08 to put the Kings up 3-1.

The Blues had no one to blame but themselves for the Kings' next goal, a
short-handed effort by Mike Donnelly at 12:46. First, Jeff Brown passed behind
Emerson and prevented the Blues from leaving their zone. Then, Tony Granato
stripped the puck from Ron Sutter for a two-on-none break-in against Joseph,
who didn't have a chance on Donnelly. Donnely scored to increase the Kings 
lead to 4-1.

Alexei Zhitnik increased the Kings' lead to 5-1 early in the final period,
scoring on the rebound of Conacher's shot at 4:33. The Blues responded with
two goals in the next 1:08 to cut the lead to two. Good work by Ron Sutter
behind the net got the puck to Brett Hull who setup a wide open Butcher in
front of Stauber. Stauber made a first save on Butcher but couldn't stop
the rebound as Butcher scored to cut the lead to 5-2 at 5:13. 

Shanahan scored a nice goal when he picked up the puck at centre ice, circled
in his own zone and carried it all the way in the Kings zone, then blasted
a shot from the top of the left circle to cut the Kings lead to 5-3. The 
Blues kept trying to score but Stauber again made some fantastic saves.
Mike Donnelly added an empty net goal at the end of the period to close 
the scoring at 6-3.
 
The game's three stars:   1 - Robb Stauber (44 saves).
                          2 - Brett Hull (1 goal and 1 assist).
                          3 - Marty McSorley (1goal and 1 assist).

The Blues lines:  Brendan Shanahan - Craig Janney - Nelson Emerson
                  Kevin Miller     - Ron Sutter   - Brett Hull
                  Vitali Prokhorov - Igor Korolev - Vitali Karamnov
                  Kelly Chase      - Philippe Bozon - Rich Sutter
 
Defensive pairings:  Garth Butcher - Jeff Brown
                     Bret Hedican  - Rick Zombo
                     Lee Norwood   - Stephane Quintal

scratches: Murray Baron, Curt Giles
injuries : Dave Lowry (knee), Ron Wilson (knee), Bob Bassen (foot)

Box score:
----------
KINGS 6, BLUES 3

BLUES           1      0      2 -- 3
LOS ANGELES     1      3      2 -- 6

FIRST PERIOD

    LA -- McSorley 8 (McIntyre) 1:13
    B  -- Hull 16 (Miller, Janney) 17:10

    Penalties -- Zhitnik (LA), holding, 2:10; Granato (LA), roughing, 6:35;
Norwood (B), roughing, 6:35; Zombo (B), hooking, 6:51; Hull (B), slashing,
11:21; Millen (LA), holding, 12:05; Blake (LA), holding, 14:40.

SECOND PERIOD

    LA -- Millen 18 (McSorley, Robitaille) 8:41
    LA -- Conacher 8 (Huddy) 10:08
    LA -- (SHG) Donnelly 13 (Granato) 12:46

    Penalties -- Blake (LA), cross-checking, 6:19; Thompson (LA), interference
11:57.

THIRD PERIOD

    LA -- Zhitnik 4 (Conacher, White) 4:33
    B  -- Butcher 4 (Hull, Ron Sutter) 5:13
    B  -- Shanahan 14 (unassisted) 5:41
    LA -- (ENG) Donnelly 4 (Millen) 19:51

    Penalties -- White (LA), boarding, 0:41; Butcher (B), hooking, 7:30

    Power plays: Blues, 0 for 6; Kings, 0 for 3.

SHOTS ON GOAL

BLUES          11      21      15 -- 47
LOS ANGELES     6      15      11 -- 32

Goaltenders: Blues, Joseph (8-12-3),(32 shots - 26 saves).
             LA, Stauber (9-0-1), (47 shots - 44 saves).

Referee -- Ron Hoggarth. Linesmen -- Brad Lazarowitch, Randy Mitton.

A -- 16,005.

  %*%*%*%**%*%%*%*%*%*%*%*%*%*%*%*%*%*%*%*%*%*%*%*%*%*%*%*%*%*%*%*%*%*%*%*
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  %   \ \_)____________/         A L L E Z   L E S   B L U E S  ! ! !    * 
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  %     \    ________/                                                   *
  *      \   _______/                  Joe                               % 
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  *        \  \  SAINT LOUIS           jca2@cec1.wustl.edu               % 
  %        (___)             BLUES                                       * 
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