Gretzky Scores First Playoff Goal for Blues

Although it seems Jon Casey has an impossible task, the St. Louis Blues’ backup goaltender has it relatively easy.

All Casey has to do is live up to the lofty standards set by Grant Fuhr until a knee injury ended Fuhr’s season. Wayne Gretzky has to live up to his own spectacular exploits, and he hadn’t been coming close.

“I’m probably my own worst enemy. After all the things I’ve accomplished in my career, when it doesn’t materialize, people question what’s wrong,” Gretzky said. “The hardest thing for Wayne Gretzky is to play up to what Wayne Gretzky did maybe 12 years ago.”

Friday, both rekindled memories of past playoff successes as the Blues stunned the Detroit Red Wings, 1-0, at the Kiel Center to tie their best-of-seven playoff series, 2-2.

Casey, who carried the upstart Minnesota North Stars to the 1991 Stanley Cup finals, stopped 29 shots to earn his third career playoff shutout and a standing ovation from the crowd of 20,796. Gretzky, the NHL’s all-time leading playoff scorer, scored his first playoff goal with the Blues and first in the playoffs since 1993, when he led the Kings to the Stanley Cup finals.

“It’s quite a shock,” said Casey, who gave up eight goals in Game 2 of the series but earned his first playoff shutout since April 12, 1991.

“We had a solid game. The forwards worked really hard and picked the late players up, which really helps against Detroit,” added Casey, who spent most of this season in the International Hockey League while Fuhr played a record 79 games. “It was a hard-working game by everyone on our team.”

Gretzky, who said he had lost some confidence around the net, showed no nervousness in scoring the game’s only goal at 4:40 of the second period on a power play.

The play began on a long lead pass by Casey to Shayne Corson, who spotted Gretzky as he slipped behind the Detroit defense. Without hesitating, Gretzky whacked a 35-foot shot between the pads of Detroit goalie Chris Osgood, who had won four of his previous five playoff starts this spring, all in Detroit.

“Believe me, I was probably just as happy as anyone else in the building when it went in,” said Gretzky, who had 12 assists in the Blues’ previous nine games. “It’s been a tough series. We’re playing a team with one of the best records in hockey the last 30 years.”

The Blues did a superb job of limiting the Red Wings’ speedy Russian line of Vyacheslav Kozlov, Igor Larionov and Sergei Fedorov to three shots and holding Steve Yzerman to two shots after the Detroit center had eight points in the previous two games. With veteran center Craig MacTavish winning an inordinate number of faceoffs and their defense playing a rugged but controlled game, the Blues became the first team to shut out the Red Wings this season.

Said St. Louis defenseman Al MacInnis: “At the beginning of the series, people said, ‘How are you going to stop Detroit?’ There’s 100 things you could try, but you can’t be so worried about them that we get off our game.”

NHL Notes

Dallas businessman John Spano, who tried to buy that city’s NHL team earlier this season, is negotiating to buy control of the Florida Panthers from H. Wayne Huizenga. Spano would buy a majority stake of 50% to 70% and is considered the most serious buyer at this time, Huizenga spokesman Stan Smith said Friday.