Hull and Oates Are Silent, but Blues Beat North Stars

Dan Quinn had a goal and three assists to lead the St. Louis Blues past the Minnesota North Stars, 4-2, Friday night.

The North Stars lead the best-of-seven Norris Division series, 3-2, heading into Game 6 Sunday night in Bloomington, Minn., where they beat the Blues, 5-1 and 8-4, in Games 3 and 4.

St. Louis held Minnesota without a shot for the first 12:25 of the second period and gave up few good chances overall. Goaltender Vincent Riendeau, pulled in Games 3 and 4 after giving up nine goals on 27 shots, yielded only late power-play goals to Brian Propp and Mike Modano.

This time it was North Star goaltender Jon Casey who was pulled, leaving at 10:18 of the third period after giving up four goals on 29 shots.

Rod Brind’Amour added a goal and an assist and Paul Cavallini and Dave Thomlinson scored on the power play for the Blues, who are trying to become the first team in NHL history to come back from a 3-1 playoff deficit twice in the same season.

The Blues prevailed before a sellout crowd of 18,520 despite Brett Hull and Adam Oates going scoreless.

St. Louis has struggled throughout the playoffs on the power play, but went two for eight in Game 5. The Blues are six for 20 in the last two games after going four for 57 in the first 10 games of the playoffs.

The Blues also shut down the North Stars’ playoffs-leading power-play unit, which was also two for eight. Propp’s sixth goal of the playoffs came with 5:56 to play, and Modano scored while Minnesota was at a two-player advantage with 2:21 remaining.