Blues Continue Hot Start by Defeating Hurricanes

The St. Louis Blues are doing their best to make up for last season’s early playoff exit.

Scott Young scored his NHL-leading 12th goal and added an assist as the Blues won their fifth in a row, beating the Carolina Hurricanes, 4-1, Sunday night at Raleigh, N.C.

“We’ve gotten back to the way we were playing most of last year,” Young said. “Our game is to be stingy with quality chances and we’ve done that.”

The Blues took a 1-0 lead 10:49 into the game as Al MacInnis beat Arturs Irbe.

Less than five minutes later, Young scored for a 2-0 St. Louis lead.

The Hurricanes responded with a goal by Marek Malik 56 seconds later.

But Tyson Nash pounced on a rebound midway through the second period for a 3-1 lead and the Blues took control from there.

St. Louis extended its best start in franchise history to 8-2-1. The loss pushed Carolina’s winless streak to five games.

“It’s not a heck of a lot of fun right now,” Carolina defenseman Glen Wesley said.

“We have a good hockey club in here and there are a lot of frustrated guys. There are a lot of players in here who are trying to do too much and taking the burden on themselves.”

“But in order to be successful we’ve got to do it as a five-man unit.”

Chicago 3, Minnesota 2--Michael Nylander had a goal and an assist and Jocelyn Thibault finished with 24 saves as the Blackhawks defeated the Wild at St. Paul, Minn.

The Blackhawks took a 2-1 lead at 12:36 of the first when Steve Sullivan flipped a shot from behind the net that bounced off Minnesota goalie Manny Fernandez and into the net for a power-play goal.

Nylander’s goal at 9:49 of the second period was the eventual game-winner.

“We were getting to the point where we were starting to doubt ourselves, and that’s a bad position to be in this early in the year,” Chicago left wing Kris King said. “We played a 60-minute game and got a really big win, which is something this team really needed.’

King’s first goal of the season opened the scoring for Chicago at the 4:24 mark of the first period.

Minnesota’s Marian Gaborik countered six minutes later when he beat Thibault with a wrist shot.

Scott Pellerin scored midway through the third to pull the Wild within a goal, but the Blackhawks killed a late Minnesota power play to preserve the win.

New York Rangers 5, Boston 1--Mark Messier scored twice and added an assist and Mike Richter stopped 39 shots for his first win of the season to lead the Rangers at New York.

Theoren Fleury and Valery Kamensky each added a goal and an assist as the Rangers ended a four-game losing streak.

Jason Allison scored a power-play goal for Boston, which has won once in its last seven games.

Bruin rookie goalie Andrew Raycroft started but was pulled by Coach Mike Keenan after allowing Valery Kamensky at 10:06 of the first period. Despite stopping the first six shots he faced, that was the end of Raycroft for the night.

Backup Kay Whitmore gave up the Rangers’ final four goals.

Washington 1, Philadelphia 1--Jeff Halpern scored two minutes into the third period and Olaf Kolzig stopped 30 shots as the Capitals tied the Flyers at Philadelphia.

Daymond Langkow scored at 8:41 of the second period for the Flyers, who went 0-for-7 on the power play.

Philadelphia center Simon Gagne had the lone scoring opportunity in overtime, but he fanned on a shot in the slot.