Blues conclude preseason with victory over Chicago

ST. LOUIS -- Keith Tkachuk had a successful debut, scoring with 2:01 left to give St. Louis a 2-1 win over the Chicago Blackhawks in the Blues' preseason finale Sunday night.

Tkachuk, playing his first game since returning from a team-imposed suspension for failing his physical, crashed the net and banged the rebound of Trent Whitfield's shot past Chicago goalie Nikolai Khabibulin.

Eric Brewer had the other goal for St. Louis (3-2-1). Pavel Vorobiev scored for Chicago (4-4-0).

Khabibulin stopped 27 shots, but saw his record fall to 1-3. St. Louis' Patrick Lalime had 22 saves and improved to 3-1.

Brewer gave the Blues the lead with 2:09 remaining in the first period with his wrist shot from the right slot.

Chicago tied the game on Vorobiev's power-play score 1:38 into the second period. Lalime took an interference penalty at the 53-second mark and it came back to cost him when Vorobiev skated down the right wing and slipped the puck past Lalime.

The Blues open ther regular season at 6:30 p.m. on Wednesday with a road game against the Detroit Red Wings.