Demitra discovers goal-mine in defeat of Flames

ST. LOUIS -- Pavol Demitra couldn't buy a goal early in the season. Against the Flames, he was a scoring machine.

Demitra got three goals for his third career hat trick and added an assist as the Blues beat Calgary 7-2 Friday night.

"This game probably happens once a year," Demitra said. "Every single puck jumped on my stick and every rebound went in. I got two easy goals and it just builds confidence."

The Blues won without goalie Tom Barrasso, who left after one period with a back strain. Fred Brathwaite has been sharing the job with Barrasso with No. 1 Brent Johnson out because of a high ankle sprain sustained before training camp. Brathwaite played the last two periods.

Coach Joel Quenneville said Barrasso was injured in the middle of the first period and would likely be unavailable for Saturday night's game against the Devils.

"I guess he's pretty sore, pretty stiff," Quenneville said. "I think we're in the process of calling somebody up."

Demitra was second on the team with 35 goals last season and has been held to seven this season, although he also has 17 assists for a team-leading 24 points. He had seven shots in the first two periods.

Cory Stillman scored twice and Dallas Drake and Doug Weight had a goal apiece for the Blues, who beat Roman Turek on four of their first 16 shots -- and three of four in one stretch. Jamie McLennan replaced Turek, a former Blues goalie, for about eight minutes in the second before Turek returned near the end of the period.

"I let in too many goals," Turek said.

The Blues tied their season high for scoring. They had 12 goals in their previous seven games, going 2-4-1.

Mathias Johansson and Chris Drury scored for the slumping Flames, who are 1-9-0-1 in their last 11 games. Calgary has been outscored 35-12 during that span.

Coach Greg Gilbert's job is hanging in the balance.

"We're not going to pinpoint anything just on tonight's game," general manager Craig Button said. "I'm going to emphasize that we're going to find solutions and we're going to find them quickly.

"I'm not going to talk about anybody tonight in our organization."

Johansson got the game's first goal at 3:54 of the first, but the Blues are 9-2 when their opponent scores first.

"It's a great statistic, but it's one we don't want," Stillman said. "We'd rather be scoring the first goal and winning right from the hop."

Demitra scored on the rebound of Al MacInnis' shot that was deflected by Eric Boguniecki off the goal post to tie it at 1 in the first period. He scored on a rebound for a 2-1 lead,and made it 5-2 in the second period when he broke through the defense and scored from the top of the left circle.

Stillman got his ninth goal and the only score of the third period.

Noteworthy

The Blues are 3-0 against the Flames with one game to go in the season series.

Demitra's last hat trick was Dec. 20, 2000 against the Rangers. He had a career-best five points in that game.

Demitra has 147 goals in five-plus seasons with the Blues, passing Doug Gilmour (145) for 10th on the team's career list.

Blues C Mike Eastwood, the team's top faceoff man in recent seasons, was a healthy scratch for the third straight game. He got his only goal of the season on Oct. 17.

Jarome Iginla got his 200th career assist in the second period for the Flames.