Friday, Nov. 06, 2009

Blues get torched by Flames in OT

Rookie Eller provides their only goal of game

ST. LOUIS -- When a scoreless streak reaches historical depths, it takes something special for a team to climb back into the sunlight again.

That turned out to be the first career goal by St. Louis Blues rookie Lars Eller, who netted one in his NHL debut Thursday during a 2-1 overtime loss to the Calgary Flames.

Eller scored at 7:15 of the third period to tie the game 1-1, helping the Blues (5-6-2) avoid a third straight home shutout defeat.

The Flames (9-4-1) ended the drama on a goal by Dion Phaneuf that deflected in off the shin pad of Blues forward T.J. Oshie with 2:10 remaining in overtime. The loss dropped the Blues to 3-6-2 since a 2-0 start in Sweden, but they did pick up a point by forcing overtime.

They have lost six of seven games at Scottrade Center, scoring only eight goals during that span. One of those was an empty-netter.

"I liked our work ethic, or level of determination," Blues coach Andy Murray said. "It's a tough league, you've got to scrape and claw for every point you can get. We must be serving some sort of a penance for something.

"We're going to be justly rewarded down the road if we keep working hard."

Eller not only scored his first NHL goal, he drew the penalty that led to a power-play when he was tripped by Calgary's Dustin Boyd.

Oshie -- who had six shots in his first game back after an emergency appendectomy --won a faceoff and dropped the puck back to Eric Brewer at the right point. Brewer slid it quickly to Erik Johnson, who fired a hard shot at the net that deflected off the side of Eller and past Flames goaltender Miikka Kiprusoff.

It was nothing fancy, but a bounce finally went the Blues' way.

The goal ended their overall scoring drought at 168 minutes, 7 seconds. It also snapped the scoreless streak at home at 171 minutes, 5 seconds.

"It was a very good feeling," Eller said. "I barely touched the puck, it might have gone in either way. It's just relieving, I feel good to just get the whole thing over with."

Eller's goal also brought a merciful end to the team's power-play slide that reached 0-for-26 Thursday with an 0-for-4 performance before Eller and Johnson worked their magic.

The Blues' worst scoreless streak in franchise history was 179 minutes, 54 seconds from March 7-13, 1971.

Eller became the 12th player in Blues history to score a goal in his NHL debut; the last was Cam Paddock against Chicago on Nov. 14, 2008.

"Lars was really impressive today," said Blues goalie Chris Mason, who stopped 29 of 31 shots. "He didn't back down and was physical out there. He wasn't intimidated going to the net, I thought he had a great game and he got rewarded there at the end."

The Blues hadn't scored a goal at home since rookie defenseman Alex Pietrangelo found the back of the net Oct. 24 against Dallas.

Their overall scoreless streak began following David Perron's empty-net goal on Oct. 28. After that, the Blues lost 2-0 to Phoenix and 4-0 to Florida.

"We've been down this road before, where we've worked hard and haven't been rewarded," Murray said. "We've got to stay after it."

A pass from Jay Bouwmeester sent Flames star Jarome Iginla in on a first-period breakaway and he fired a hard shot at Mason.

The puck trickled through Mason and he managed to get his glove on it just before it crossed the goal line. However, Brewer inadvertently knocked the puck into his own net with his stick 3:34 into the game, giving the Flames a 1-0 lead.

"I got it out and it just went back in," Mason said. "It's just the way the breaks are going right now."

The Blues couldn't score during a 5-on-3 power play in the second period that lasted 1 minute, 37 seconds. Murray called timeout before the power play began and his main message seemed to be getting the puck to Johnson as often as possible.

The Blues did manage to get five shots on net during the two-man advantage, but could get nothing past Kiprusoff. They were 1-for-5 on the power play Thursday.

"When you've got Erik Johnson shooting the puck from 15 feet in front of the net in the middle of the ice, it doesn't get much better than that," Murray said. "He must have had about four one-timers from there. He just failed to get the puck up high enough."

The Flames are 8-1 in their last nine meetings with the Blues.

Blue notes

Blues lineup scratches were winger Andy McDonald (upper body injury) and defenseman Carlo Colaiacovo (flu). McDonald did some skating earlier Tuesday while wearing an orange non-contact jersey.

Contact reporter Norm Sanders at nsanders@bnd.com or 239-2454.