Blues 4, Sharks 1
Saturday February 08, 2003By R.B. FALLSTROM
AP Sports Writer
ST. LOUIS (AP) Empty net or not, Doug Weight was happy to finally score again.
The St. Louis Blues' All-Star scored his first goal in 29 games to cap a 4-1 victory over the San Jose Sharks on Saturday night. He's among the league leaders with 44 assists, but admitted his 12th goal with 27.4 seconds to go, felt good.
``It's nothing I was losing sleep over,'' Weight said. ``But it was getting there.''
Teammates were anxious for Weight to get the monkey off his back. Keith Tkachuk came off early and Dallas Drake insisted Weight take his left wing shift so Weight could get a chance at an easy one.
``I kind of felt stupid,'' Weight said. ``I've got 200-some goals in my career. But everybody was face-washing me like it was the first of my career, and it kind of felt like it.''
Tkachuk scored his seventh goal in five games to snap a second-period tie. The Blues won after giving up the first goal of a game for the 17th time, and avoided a third-period letdown after settling for ties with the Rangers and Stars the previous two games. The Central Division leaders are 3-0-2 overall in their last five games.
``We just kept going at them,'' coach Joel Quenneville said. ``They didn't get much play in our end at all.''
Drake added his third goal in four games, Al MacInnis had two assists, and goalie Brent Johnson shrugged off another shaky start for the Blues.
``I felt good the rest of the game,'' Johnson said. ``I felt good the whole game. The chances are kept to a minimum like that, I love playing those games.''
Jonathan Cheechoo scored for the Sharks, who have lost three of four. They've dropped the first two games of a seven-game trip, also blowing a two-goal lead in a 4-3 loss to the Wild on Friday.
``We can't seem to figure out 1-0 on the road or anywhere is a pretty good thing,'' coach Ron Wilson said. ``We seem to lack patience in situations.''
Johnson was yanked after giving up two early goals in Thursday's 4-4 tie with the New York Rangers, and the Sharks caught him leaning when they scored on their second shot. Johnson was sliding to the left side of the net when Cheechoo, with a step on the Blues' defense, tapped one in on the right side at 9:42 of the first period for his seventh goal.
The Blues were outshot 9-4 in the second period and had only one shot in the first 14 minutes, but they beat Evgeni Nabokov twice to take the lead.
Drake's 14th goal, on the rebound of a shot by Doug Weight that deflected off the end boards, tied it at 3:09 of the second period. Tkachuk scored his team-leading 24th goal on the deflection of a shot by MacInnis to break the tie at 14:55.
``We had a positive attitude,'' Sharks defenseman Brad Stuart said. ``We just went out there and didn't do what we needed to do, so that was it.''
The Blues outshot the Sharks 11-4 in the third, getting a power play goal from Pavol Demitra with 5:06 remaining and Weight's empty-netter.< ^Notes:@ The Blues were shut out on four power plays in the first, totaling seven shots. ... The Blues were without forwards Martin Rucinsky (shoulder), Eric Nickulas (eye) and Steve Dubinsky (mild concussion). ... St. Louis is 20-2-1-2 when leading after two periods. ... Tkachuk has 52 points on 28 goals and 24 assists in 42 career games against the Sharks. ... Nabokov has started seven consecutive games and 10 of the last 11.
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