Sunday, Oct. 25, 2009

Blues blow a fuse; win over Wild is followed by fight-filled loss to Stars

ST. LOUIS -- Any carryover from the St. Louis Blues' 3-1 win over Minnesota the night before was quickly lost in a flurry of injuries and anger a day later.

Already playing without winger T.J. Oshie, who underwent an emergency appendectomy Saturday morning, the Blues also lost winger D.J. King and defenseman Carlo Colaiacovo to injuries Saturday in a 4-1 loss to the Dallas Stars.

That forced the Blues to play two men short for the final 1 1/2 periods. Because of late misconduct penalties to Blues forwards Cam Janssen and B.J. Crombeen, the team finished with just 14 of the 18 skaters that began the game -- nine forwards and five defensemen.

The Blues' breaking point came after Steve Ott's questionable hip check on Colaiacovo with 11:19 remaining in the second period.

Colaiacovo wound up in a heap on the ice as his teammates quickly came to his aid, led by rookie defense partner Alex Pietrangelo.

Colaiacovo -- who tried to play a couple more shifts before leaving for good with what the team called an upper-body injury --felt the hit was dirty and that Ott should be suspended.

"I won't be the one to judge; there's 18,000 people there that will agree with me and say it was a dirty hit," Colaiacovo said. "Hopefully the league will take a look at it and do what's right."

The Blues (4-4-1) were down only 1-0, but their emotional response to the hit allowed the Stars to take command as they fell behind 4-0.

The teams combined for 26 penalties worth 86 minutes while Blues goalie Ty Conklin, who began the night 2-0 with a 1.71 goals-against average, allowed four goals on 31 shots.

"I think we lost a little bit of focus after that and they took advantage," Blues center Jay McClement said. "It's good for us that we stuck together and guys stuck up for each other, but at the same time the idea is to win the game.

"That's what we've got to focus on. We just got away from that for a few minutes."

It took only four seconds of one shift for King to make his season debut, get into a fight and suffer another injury.

King squared off with Dallas tough guy Krys Barch and clearly got the better of things, landing two wicked right hands after yanking Barch's helmet off.

King appeared to hurt his hand during the fight, went immediately to the dressing room and did not return. The Blues said he had an upper-body injury.

The next victim was Colaiacovo, injured after being upended on Ott's low hit. Ott's hit touched off a melee near center ice that at one point involved everyone on both teams except the goalies.

Pietrangelo tried to go after Ott and wound up with a four-minute roughing penalty. Ott wasn't penalized for the hit, getting two minutes for roughing.

When the players were separated, Dallas wound up with a four-minute power play that led to a goal.

Ott dumped Crombeen, a former Star, with 1:20 remaining, drawing Crombeen into a fight. Crombeen wound up with two minutes for instigating and a misconduct, while Ott -- who appeared to stick his leg out on the hit -- got five minutes for fighting.

"I guess that's old hockey, just hit the guy shoulder to shoulder," Blues defenseman Darryl Sydor said of Ott's hit on Colaiacovo. "You don't have to bend down after that. The one on (Crombeen) I think he stuck his leg out.

"That's the way Steve plays though, he has to play that way to be effective."

One of the few highlights was the first NHL goal by Pietrangelo. It came on a shot from the left point with 3:50 remaining in the game.

Already leading 1-0 on James Neal's sixth goal, Dallas began with a four-minute power play. The Stars made it 2-0 when Blues center Patrik Berglund slipped on the penalty kill, allowing Brad Richards to find Loui Eriksson streaking to the net. Tom Wandell and Brian Sutherby also scored for Dallas.

The Blues were 0-for-5 on the power play Saturday, leaving them in an 0-for-16 rut over the last four games.

Blues center Keith Tkachuk had one of the team's best scoring chances of the night, but was turned away by Stars goalie Marty Turco midway through the third period.

Not too long after that, Blues forward Brad Winchester was stripped of the puck by Sutherby. Sutherby turned the giveaway into a goal to make it 4-0 for the Stars, now unbeaten in seven road games (4-0-3).