Game 4 – Physical Eagles strike back
SEATTLE, Washington (AP) -- The St. Louis Eagles flexed plenty of offensive muscle in regaining home-ice advantage over the Seattle Metropolitans.
Mario Lemieux had two goals and one assist and Joe Malone tallied twice as the visiting Eagles skated to a convincing 6-3 victory over the Mets in Game 4 of their Foster Hewitt division semi-final series on Friday.
The St. Louis win ties the best-of-seven series 2-2. Game 5 goes Tuesday at St. Louis Arena (8 p.m. EDT, 5 p.m. PDT).
"The whole team played a great game and we deserved a win tonight," said Malone, now with three goals in the series.
Played before a capacity crowd at the Ice House in Seattle, the feisty affair featured 139 minutes in penalties (79 for Seattle), including seven misconducts and five fighting majors.
"I thought we played aggressive early without taking penalties," said Eagles forward Gordie Howe, who set up two goals.
Valeri Vasiliev impressed with one goal, two assists, and some big hits.
"I was able to come out and contribute and I am happy about that," Vasiliev said through an interpreter. "We played well."
Cooney Weiland had a goal and Mats Naslund picked up a pair of assists for the second-ranked Eagles. Keven Stevens provided two assists in support of goalie Clint Benedict, who made 35 saves.
"I thought we were flying out there," Stevens said. "That magic that a lot of these guys like Gordie and Mario have, you could see it ... when we got chances, we buried them."
Wingers Alf Smith and Jaromir Jagr led the third-seeded Mets with a goal and assist apiece. Rod Langway collected two assists, while center Brent Sutter opened the scoring for the Mets.
Chuck Gardiner surrendered four goals on 20 shots before being pulled in favor of Hap Holmes, who stopped nine of 11 shots.
"They came out strong," Holmes said. "They didn't seem to sit back and wait and see what was going to happen."
"We played a little bit nervous and made some mistakes that burned us," added Mets forward Bernie Federko. "But it's over with.
"We've had stinkers before and we'll have them again. It's how you rebound."
St. Louis's forecheckers set a physical tone at the outset and it paid dividends as Lemieux scored his second goal of the series 5:20 into the contest, dancing around Brad McCrimmon by slipping the puck between his legs and beating Gardiner with a quick shot above the blocker.
"We were more passive in the first two games," Eagles head coach Cecil Hart. "We allowed too much time and space for some of their more skilled players to attack us.
"Tonight, we were quicker and tried to play more of an aggressive game."
Tempers flared as Derian Hatcher and Valeri Vasiliev bodied everyone in sight and Howe charged into a scrum in front of Gardiner, flashing his elbows and inciting a skirmish that resulted in a St. Louis power play.
Vasiliev promptly capitalized with the man advantage, notching his first of the playoffs on a slapshot through a crowd at 8:40 and stretching the Eagles’ lead to 2-0.
St. Louis continued to forecheck with reckless abandon and was rewarded when Stevens knocked Rick Meagher off the puck and quickly fed Malone for a one-timer in the slot that beat Gardiner five-hole. The goal was Malone’s second goal of the series and fourth of the playoffs at 12:56.
But the Mets struck back with 1:22 left in the first period to make it 3-1 as Langway's high slapshot struck the shaft of Sutter’s stick in a crowd and trickled into the net.
After review, the goal was deemed legal and credited to Sutter, his first.
The Eagles regained their three goal lead early in the second period as Jan Suchy sprung Malone, whose slapshot beat Gardiner to the far side at 2:17. That spelled the end of Gardiner’s evening as Pete Green replaced him with Hap Holmes.
Jagr slashed the deficit to 4-2 twenty seconds into the third period, knocking down a clearing pass by Carol Vadnais and fooling Benedict with a slick backhand deke.
Three minutes later, a broken play off the draw resulted in Lemieux scoring his second of the game, and third of the series, to stretch the Eagles’ lead to 5-2. Trottier won the draw clean, but the puck hit the skate of an unaware Goulet and bounced onto the stick of a waiting Lemieux who made no mistake with a shot to the far corner.
With ten minutes remaining, Mets enforcer Tiger Williams squelched any chance of a comeback as he was assessed 19 minutes in penalties, resulting in a four-minute power play for the Eagles. Afterwards, Williams said he was responding to a Howe hit on Mets star Jaromir Jagr in Game 3. The resulting powerplay produced a goal by Weiland at 10:28, staking the Eagles to a 6-2 lead.
Neither Howe nor Hatcher finished the contest as they took part in a brawl sparked by Hatcher's boarding infraction on Gary Dornhoefer.
As Howe tussled gamely with Craig Ludwig, Hatcher briefly traded blows with Dornhoefer until they wrestled each other to the ice.
"We said to ourselves we have to play hard and fight for every inch on the ice," Hatcher said.
Seattle got a late wrap-around goal from captain Smith who squeezed the puck between Benedict’s pad and the post, assisted by Jagr and Langway, with 3:42 remaining.
That's all I have for today. Too nice of weather to stay indoors and write anymore.