Game Recap

ST. LOUIS 4, DALLAS 1 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. 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 Western Conference semifinal series. "Roman was by far the most valuable player of this series," said teammate Scott Young, whose empty-netter closed out the scoring. "We're getting the best goaltending there is." Dallas reached the Stanley Cup Finals the last two years, winning in 1999. 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. "We've had a wonderful run, but it's over," Stars 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." Alexander Khavanov, Keith Tkachuk and Chris Pronger also 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, lead 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 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, who made 29 saves. 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 lone miss-step was deciding to come out of the net to try to glove a bouncing puck headed his way. Joe 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. ST. LOUIS BLUES 4, Dallas Stars 1 1ST 2ND 3RD FINAL --- --- --- ----- Dallas 0 1 0 1 St. Louis 0 2 2 4 FIRST PERIOD - SCORING: None. PENALTIES: Pronger, StL (interference), 12:03; Young, StL (interference), 16:31; Stillman, StL (boarding), 19:40. SECOND PERIOD - SCORING: 1, St. Louis, Khavanov 2 (Turgeon), 9:28. 2, St. Louis, Tkachuk 2 (MacInnis, Pronger), 14:37 (pp). 3, Dallas, Nieuwendyk 4 (Langenbrunner, Morrow), 16:40. PENALTIES: Nieuwendyk, Dal (interference), 3:14; Hatcher, Dal (roughing), 8:57; Tkachuk, StL (high-sticking), 8:57; Matvichuk, Dal (cross-checking), 13:00; Keane, Dal (interference), 17:00. THIRD PERIOD - SCORING: 4, St. Louis, Pronger 1 (Turgeon, Young), 16:11. 5, St. Louis, Young 4 (Tkachuk), 18:36. PENALTIES: None. SHOTS ON GOAL 1ST 2ND 3RD TOTAL --- --- --- ----- Dallas 14 11 8 33 St. Louis 8 17 8 33 POWER PLAY: Dallas 0 of 3; St. Louis 1 of 3. GOALIES: Dallas, Belfour 4-6 (32 shots-29 saves). St. Louis, Turek 8-2 (33-32). Referees: Mark Faucette, Kerry Fraser. Linesmen: Brad Lazarowich, Mark Wheler. A: 19,994 (19,260).