Thursday, May 3 7:30pm ET
Turek remains undefeated vs. former team
RECAP
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BOX SCORE
ST. LOUIS (AP) – No one's calling Roman Turek a weak link
anymore.
Another big game from Turek, a supposed liability in goal
heading into the playoffs, helped the St. Louis Blues advance to
the NHL's final four for the first time in 15 seasons.
|  | | Keith Tkachuk gets the shot past Ed Belfour to give the Blues a 2-0 lead in the second period Thursday night. |
Turek made 32 saves in another dominant effort against his old
team as the Blues completed a shocking sweep of the Dallas Stars
with a 4-1 Game 4 victory Thursday night. Turek, the former
understudy to Ed Belfour, is 7-0-2 against his old team and allowed
only six goals on 112 shots in the series.
"Roman was by far the most valuable player of this series,"
teammate Scott Young said. "We're getting the best goaltending
there is."
Dallas reached the Stanley Cup finals the last two years,
winning in 1999.
"We've had a wonderful run, but it's over," coach Ken
Hitchcock said. "We have to look at ways to retool to get back to
the top."
The Blues, who were eliminated in the first round last spring
after winning the Presidents' Trophy, completed their first sweep
since taking out the Los Angeles Kings in the first round in 1998.
"It's unbelievable we won 4-nothing," Turek said. "If
somebody told me this before we started playing the first game, I
wouldn't believe them.
"The most important thing that happened is we won both games in
Dallas and that was unbelievable confidence for us."
The Stars, who lost the finals in six games to the New Jersey
Devils last spring, were swept for only the second time in
franchise history. The only other time was 1984 when they lost to
Edmonton in the Campbell Conference finals.
Alexander Khavanov, Keith Tkachuk and Chris Pronger scored, and
Pierre Turgeon had two assists for the Blues, who entered the
playoffs as the fourth seed in the Western Conference but will
carry a six-game postseason winning streak into the conference
finals against either Colorado or Los Angeles.
The Avalanche, the top seed in the West, leads that series 3-1
heading into Game 5 on Friday night.
The Blues beat Belfour twice in a dominating second-period
stretch, during which they outshot the Stars 10-0. After Pronger's
goal with 3:49 to play sewed it up, seconds after Belfour thwarted
Dallas Drake on a deflection, several brooms were tossed onto the
ice.
Brenden Morrow's apparent goal with 2:34 was disallowed because
the puck was passed with a high stick. When St. Louis' Scott Young
scored into an empty net with 1:24 to go someone tossed a stuffed
octopus onto the ice.
Khavanov, whose goal forced overtime in Game 3, put the Blues
ahead at 9:28 after Belfour stopped Pierre Turgeon on a break-in.
Khavanov tapped the puck in before Belfour could corral the rebound
with his stick.
Tkachuk also scored on a rebound during a power play at 14:37 of
the second for his second goal of the playoffs. After a drive by Al
MacInnis, Tkachuk slid a backhander around Belfour.
In the third period, the Blues' defense short-circuited comeback
efforts. St. Louis held a supposedly desperate team to three shots
in the first 15 minutes, and eight overall.
The first two periods belonged to Turek.
The Stars had several excellent chances in the scoreless first
period. The most bizarre miss came when Joe Nieuwendyk's rebound
shot deflected off a loose stick flying through the air in the
crease with about 3½ minutes to go.
Turek also stopped a tip by Brett Hull just as an interference
penalty against Young expired. The puck popped out of his glove,
but he swatted it out of the air before it could go over the goal
line.
In the first period, he rescued an Alexei Gusarov giveaway by
stopping Jere Lehtinen. He then made a sliding save to stop Mike
Modano on a Stars power play. With 37.8 seconds to go in the
second, he made a diving save on Nieuwendyk.
"I knew before the game they would have a very good start,"
Turek said. "They had to. I was pretty sure they would shoot from
everywhere."
The lone miss-step was deciding to come out of the net to try to
glove a bouncing puck headed his way. Nieuwendyk barely beat him to
it and slid the puck into an empty net for his 100th career playoff
point, cutting the Blues' lead to 2-1 at 16:40 of the second
period.
The Stars were held scoreless in three power plays, continuing
the postseason dominance of the Blues' penalty-killing unit.
They've allowed only one goal in 39 power plays.
Game notes
The Blues clinched a playoff series at home for the first
time since 1996, when they beat Toronto in the first round. ... The
Stars went with new blood for Game 4, with forwards Tyler Bouck and
Roman Lyashenko and D Sami Helenius dressing for the first time.
Ted Donato, Grant Ledyard and Grant Marshall were scratched. All
three of the replacements played sparingly. ... Turgeon leads the
Blues with 12 points in the playoffs on three goals and nine
assists. Young has four goals and six assists. ... The Blues and
Stars have met 12 times in the playoffs and each team has won six
times. ... St. Louis has outscored its opponents 29-17 in 10
playoff games.
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ALSO SEE
NHL Scoreboard
Dallas Clubhouse
St. Louis Clubhouse
RECAPS
Toronto 3
New Jersey 1
St. Louis 4
Dallas 1
AUDIO/VIDEO
 Alex Khavanov gets the puck before Ed Belfour can cover it up and gives the Blues a 1-0 lead.
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'Cable Modem
Keith Tkachuk puts in the second-effort backhand to increase the lead to 2-0.
avi: 1773 k
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'Cable Modem
Ed Belfour is able to stop the early barrage, but Chris Pronger's slap shot proves to be too powerful.
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'Cable Modem
Roman Turek misjudges the puck and Joe Nieuwendyk makes him pay with the wraparound goal.
avi: 1251 k
RealVideo: 56.6 | ISDN'
'Cable Modem
 Roman Turek tells ESPN's Tony Twist that the Blues' work is far from over.
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RealAudio: 14.4 | 28.8 | 56.6
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