Blues hammer Canucks in Game 1
Canadian Press
4/11/2003
VANCOUVER (CP) - The game was over in the first two minutes but the beating continued.
The St. Louis Blues put the Vancouver Canucks on their heels with goals 31 seconds apart early in the first period, then didn't pull their punches for the rest of the night in pounding out a 6-0 win to open their Western Conference quarter-final Thursday night.
Cory Stillman scored on a deflection during a power play 1:30 into the game and Tyson Nash knocked home his own rebound to make it 2-0 at 2:01.
"To get two goals in the first two minutes was huge for us," said Shijon Podein, who assists on Nash's goal.
"It made us play a little better."
Goaltender Chris Osgood, considered by some to be the Blues' sour note, made 20 saves for his 10th playoff shutout.
"I felt good about myself going into the playoffs and expected myself to play well," said Osgood, obtained by the Blues at the trade deadline from the New York Islanders.
"On the chalk board we are just one game up. We have to refocus ourselves and bring the same energy into the next game."
Alexander Khavanov, with a pair, Doug Weight and Keith Tkachuk also scored for the Blues, who went 3-for-9 on the power play.
"That's how you want to play," said Weight, who also had an assist.
"It's going to be a long series. We got some bounces early and some breaks. We're going to take everything we did well and snowball it into Game 2. We know this is a good team were playing and it's going to be tough."
Pavol Demitra, who left Vancouver on Wednesday for the birth of his son, returned in time for the game and collected two assists.
An angry Canuck Coach Marc Crawford didn't mince his words after the game.
"That team was awful," he said about his own club, which has gone seven periods without a goal and has been outscored 10-0.
"We didn't deserve to be in the same league let alone the same rink. I'm embarrassed by it. The team is embarrassed by it but we have to regroup and get better."
Game 2 is Saturday (CBC, 10 p.m. EDT) in Vancouver.
The Blues just didn't outscore the Canucks, they beat them in every aspect of the game. They outshot Vancouver 29-20, won battles for the puck, played stronger in front of the net, won faceoffs and were crisp in their passing.
A screaming, sellout crowd of 18,514 soon fell silent as the Blues took the game by the throat. The white towels the home-town fans were frantically waving during the national anthems hung limp most of the evening. By the third period there were boos.
The Canucks played in slow motion. They went four power plays without registering a shot and couldn't move the puck out of their own end, finishing the game 0-for-7 with the man advantage.
Markus Naslund, Vancouver's leading scorer in the regular season, was twice called for lazy penalties after giving away the puck. He finished the night with three shots on goal, while teammate Todd Bertuzzi didn't register a shot.
Counting a 2-0 loss to the Los Angeles Kings to end the season, Vancouver has been shut out in back-to-back home games.
The Canucks, who set a franchise record with 104 points this season to finish fourth in the Western Conference - five ahead of the fifth-place Blues - last won a home playoff game April 22, 1996, a string of seven consecutive home playoff games.
Vancouver's last playoff series victory was in 1995 when they needed seven games to beat the Blues in the Western Conference quarter-final.
Notes: Defenceman Mattias Ohlund, out since Feb.27 with a knee injury, skated with the Canucks on Thursday but didn't dress for the game. ... Centre Mats Lindgren (back) also was a scratch. ... Crawford, who guided the Colorado Avalanche to the 1996 championship, is the only Canuck with a Stanley Cup ring.
Cheers,
Aquaman