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BOX SCORE
ST. LOUIS (AP) -- Carolina goalie Arturs Irbe joined a short list
of those able to beat the St. Louis Blues at home.
|  | | St. Louis' Chris Pronger, right, casually brushes aside a check from Carolina's Kent Manderville. |
Although his team was outshot 30-17, Irbe turned aside 28 shots
as the Hurricanes knocked off the Blues 4-2 Tuesday night. Since
losing its first two home games, St. Louis compiled a 10-1-2 record
at Kiel Center, with the only loss coming against defending Stanley
Cup champion Dallas on Nov. 9.
Carolina coach Paul Maurice said Irbe was the difference.
"You need something special (to win here) and we got that from
our goalie," Maurice said. "He was outstanding."
As for Irbe, he said he does not worry about how a team is
doing before he faces them.
"I don't look at those stats where some team is really hot at
home or on the road, because it really doesn't matter," Irbe said.
"All we wanted was to play a solid game and get a good effort. We
didn't get rattled after a pretty lousy start."
Irbe's night got off to a particularly dreadful beginning when
slightly more than five minutes into the game, he saw defenseman Al
MacInnis wide open at the top of the faceoff circle and winding up
for a slap shot. MacInnis scored to give the Blues a 1-0 lead, but
at least Irbe came away with his health intact.
"He hasn't hurt me yet, knock on wood," Irbe said of MacInnis,
who is known to have one of the hardest shots in the league. "When
he gets room and he's down that deep, it's almost impossible to
react."
After giving up a goal to Pavol Demitra at 13:52 of the first,
Irbe shut the Blues out the rest of the way.
"Irbe made some big saves on our power play," Blues center Pierre Turgeon said. "It was one of those nights when nothing
happened for us."
Carolina's Jeff O'Neill scored twice and added an assist to help
send the Blues to only their third loss in 13 games (8-3-2).
Ron Francis had two assists for Carolina, giving him 1,056 for
his career. He is now one assist away from tying Mark Messier for
fourth place on the NHL career list.
O'Neill broke a 2-2 tie when he scored from right in front with
48 seconds remaining in the second. Sean Hill started the play with
a shot from the right point that Turek stopped. Francis' rebound
attempt was also turned away, but the puck came to Hill who tapped
it in.
Hill had a goal and two assists for Carolina. Fellow defenseman Paul Coffey scored the other Carolina goal. The Hurricanes, who
only had 15 goals from defensemen last season, have 13 goals in 28 games this season from the defense corps.
Except for O'Neill's empty-netter with 4 seconds left, all
five other goals were scored on the power play. Carolina has scored
10 times in 30 man-advantage situations in the last seven games.
"Special teams are what's important in this league," St. Louis
captain Chris Pronger said. "If you're not successful on the power
play, or if you can't kill penalties, you're going to struggle to
win hockey games."
Blues goalie Roman Turek lost for the only the second time in
his last 11 starts (7-2-2).
MacInnis, who also assisted on Demitra's score, has 12 points in
12 games since returning from a broken ankle.
After MacInnis's goal, Coffey answered with his third of the
season 3:02 later on a slap shot from just inside the blue line
that eluded Turek and made it 1-1.
Demitra put St. Louis back on top 2-1 with his 13th goal at
13:52 of the period. But Hill tied it with a shot from in front at
5:38 of the second off a feed from Francis from behind the net.
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ALSO SEE
NHL Scoreboard
Carolina Clubhouse
St. Louis Clubhouse
RECAPS
Washington 4
NY Islanders 2
Calgary 3
Montreal 3
New Jersey 2
Pittsburgh 1
Carolina 4
St. Louis 2
AUDIO/VIDEO
 Jeff O'Neill scores for Carolina.
avi: 714 k
RealVideo: 56.6 | ISDN | T1
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