AP News, January 6th, 2008
Lee Stempniak scored his 50th NHL goal in the first period and Manny Legace made 26 saves to make it stand up in the St. Louis Blues' 1-0 victory over the Carolina Hurricanes on Saturday night.
Legace's 21st shutout, third this season, helped the Blues snap their four-game losing streak at home (0-2-2). Legace has eight shutouts with St. Louis after posting 13 with Detroit.
Stempniak scored his ninth of the season 12:49 into the game with a quick redirection from the slot between Michael Leighton's pads off a feed from Jay McKee.
Legace made the first critical save in the third period when he stopped Chad LaRose, who was able to free himself and skate into the slot from the left circle.
Frantisek Kaberle's one-timer from the high slot seconds into a power play with 12:30 left rang off the top of the crossbar.
St. Louis struggled on the power play, going 0-for-4 against the league's worst penalty-killing unit. The Blues have failed on 28 straight power-play chances are ranked last in the NHL.
Notes:@ A pair of fights broke out two seconds apart midway through the first period. The first had Carolina's Wade Brookbank go up against St. Louis' D.J. King. The second pitted Craig Adams of Carolina against Dan Hinote of St. Louis. The Blues welcomed F Andy McDonald (chest) and D Barret Jackman (concussion) back into the lineup. The Hurricanes played Friday night in Atlanta and won 4-3. They are 3-6-1 in the second of back-to-back games. This was the furthest west the Hurricanes will travel this season. It was the first of three they play outside the Eastern time zone. The teams hadn't met in St. Louis since Oct. 15, 2002, a 2-1 Blues victory in overtime. ... The Blues are 12-1 when leading after two periods.
