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  Thursday, Dec. 30 8:00pm ET
MacInnis burns Sharks in OT
 
  RECAP | BOX SCORE

ST. LOUIS (AP) -- Al MacInnis got Pierre Turgeon off the hook.

After Turgeon missed a penalty shot with 20.8 seconds left in regulation, MacInnis scored with 1:20 left in overtime as the St. Louis Blues beat the San Jose Sharks 2-1 on Thursday night in a game that featured two penalty shots.

Turgeon was awarded his penalty shot when referee Brad Watson called San Jose's Stephane Matteau for intentionally knocking the net off its moorings. But Turgeon's shot hit the goal post.

Although he felt bad about the miss, Turgeon credited San Jose goalie Steve Shields.

"He stayed there on the right side," Turgeon said. "I saw the replay and I thought he read it well."

Shields, though, said he was lucky.

"I never saw it," he said.

Earlier, the Blues faced their first penalty shot since Dec. 9, 1996, when referee Paul Stewart penalized goalie Roman Turek for throwing his stick at Jeff Friesen.

However, Turek stopped Friesen's wrist shot between his pads at the 7:50 mark of the second period. St. Louis has not allowed a goal on a penalty shot since March 24, 1988, when New Jersey's Aaron Broten beat Greg Millen.

St. Louis coach Joel Quenneville said he had never witnessed a game with more than one penalty shot.

"I've never seen it," Quenneville said. "Very unusual, but great action. The crowd enjoyed it, especially the timing of it."

San Jose coach Darryl Sutter agreed.

"I have never heard of that or seen it," Sutter said. `That has to be a record. I couldn't look at the last one, I didn't want to watch."

Turgeon did extend his team-record assist streak to 12 games, setting up Jochen Hecht's power-play goal that tied it at 8:11 of the third period.

Turgeon, who also has a 13-game scoring streak, got the puck behind the net and passed to Hecht in front. Hecht moved across the crease and slid a backhand shot past Shields. St. Louis has outscored opponents 41-19 in third period.

In overtime, MacInnis, who got the puck off a faceoff and moved in from the point, beat Shields with a wrist shot for the star defenseman's sixth goal of the season.

"We talked about how he's a goalie that likes to come out and challenge," MacInnis said. "That's not a typical goal for me, but it found the back of the net."

Shields, who tripped over defenseman Brad Stuart, said MacInnis had an easy target.

"I was trying to cut off the angle and bumped into Stuart and tripped and couldn't recover," Shields said. " It was an easy goal for him."

Mike Ricci opened the scoring for San Jose at 9:11 of the first period. With the Blues' Tyson Nash off for elbowing, Ricci directed Gary Suter's shot from the left point past Turek.

 


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RECAPS
Ottawa 5
Boston 4

Pittsburgh 9
NY Islanders 3

Nashville 6
Atlanta 0

St. Louis 2
San Jose 1

Chicago 2
Florida 1

Los Angeles 8
Edmonton 2

AUDIO/VIDEO
video
 Roman Turek shows the nice glove work.
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