BLUES OVERCOME RIFT IN SPACE-TIME CONTINUUM FOR 5-1 WIN
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In an NHL first on Friday evening, the Scottrade Centre in St. Louis witnessed what can only be described in Star Trek terms as a "temporal loop". "I've never seen anything like it," said Red Wings coach Mike Babcock. "We must have played that opening draw thirty times. No matter who won, we always ended up back at centre ice a few moments later. It was like playing the Blue Jackets but with fewer goal horns."
In spite of several attempts to re-start the game and change the outcome, the players were repeatedly teleported back in time to start over again. "I tried to shoot the puck out of play immediately so we'd have a different face off but some cosmic power seemed to prevent that from happening", said Marc Staal, who started the bizarre game. Ultimately, the proceedings were postponed to Saturday morning. By that time, Blues Management had hired Professors Emmett Brown and John Nerdlebaum Frink to construct a device to allow the game to go on, and go on it did.
The Red Wings applied a great deal of early pressure on Blues goalie Corey Schneider, who hasn't missed a start since the departure of former backup Craig Anderson to Boston. The Wings finally opened the scoring on a quick one-timer by Brad Richardson. However, Detroit found its way into penalty trouble soon afterwards, and the game was tied when Ilya Bryzgalov misplayed a puck directly onto the stick of Blues leading scorer Jason Spezza, who took two attempts before tucking it in for a 1-1 tie. The Blues would go ahead a short time later on a backhander by Ryan Whitney immediately after the expiration of another Red Wing penalty.
The Wings would press for the equalizer in the second, but were denied by a combination of solid netminding from Schneider and passive, patient defending on the part of Henrik Tallinder and Jordan Leopold, who bore the lion's share of the tough minutes on the night for St. Louis as a result of extended power play time for Marc Staal and Ryan Whitney. At the other end, NHL leading goal scorer Alexander Ovechkin continued his scoring streak, potting a pair of goals on in-tight chances, each set up by Marion Hossa. Jan Hejda also contributed to the offense with a goal.
With the Blues victory, they now sit 9 points clear of Detroit for first in the Central division and five points ahead of the Dallas Stars for first in the Western Conference. With his three-point night (1g 2a), Jason Spezza moves into a tie for first in NHL scoring with the Sharks' Marion Gaborik at 43 points each.
