St. Louis Gives The Panthers The Blues

ST. LOUIS
The Florida Panthers came into town to play the Blues for the first time since sim 678 where Florida won 6-1. In a twist of fate that would be the same score that the Panthers would lose by as St. Louis gave the Panthers a lesson in the Blues.

The difference in this game was the goaltending. Martin Brodeur was on his game stopping 26 of 27 shots he faced. Roberto Loungo had a terrible game and was chased out of the net at 16:17 of the second period after the Blues sixth goal. Loungo only stopped 15 of the 20 shots he faced. Jamie store replaced him and stopped 6 of the 7 shots he faced but the damage was already done.

Mike Leclerc got things going for St. Louis when he scored his 29th of the season at 7:58. Brad Richards made it 2-0 less then two minutes later at 8:41 when he notched his 26th of the year. Donald Audette scored his first of two on the night at 13:55 and the Blues took a 3-0 lead into the second period.

The second was not much better for the Panthers. Pierre Dagenais did however cut the lead to 3-1 when he scored his 12th of the season at 5:02. That would be the only bright spot in Florida's game on this night. Cale Hulse got a game misconduct for highsticking major at 11:43 and Bobby Holik capitalized on that when he scored a power play marker at 13:42 to give the Blues their 3 goal cushion back. Michal Handzus made it 5-1 at 16:17 and that was it for starting goalie Roberto Loungo.

Donald Audette scored his second of the game and his 18th of the year when he tapped in a Brad Richards pass at 1:52 of the third period that gave the Blues a 6-1 lead. That would be the final score of the game as the St. Louis gave the Panthers the Blues on this night.

Florida will have to get over this loss quickly as the head home to host the Blues tomorrow night in what will be the tie breaker and last game in the season series between these two clubs. As mentioned earlier both teams have won a game each by identical 6-1 scores.