Blues Bemoan Bad Call, Sorry Effort

April 19, 1989|By Skip Myslenski, Chicago Tribune.

ST. LOUIS — They were old neighbors, as familiar and well-acquainted with each other as Popeye and Bluto, as Messrs. Hatfield and McCoy, as the Road Runner and Wile E. Coyote. But, as the old saw goes, this was playoff hockey.

This was playoff hockey Tuesday night at the St. Louis Arena, and that meant the renewal of the Blues-Blackhawks feud would likely follow a predetermined script. It would start slowly, sluggishly, as if the two teams were strangers just being introduced.

Then, after an interminable feeling-out period, its heat would rise a notch and begin approaching the level expected when longtime adversaries get together again.

Finally, all these preliminaries aside, it would metamorphose into a zany affair that would end mottled by fluke bounces, inspired performances, near-misses and-inevitably-controversial calls.

And that, indeed, was the script that was followed in the Hawks` 3-1 victory, and that, in turn, left a few Blues blue and shaking their heads. Take, for one example, wing Todd Ewen.

In the second period, he dived to knock in a puck resting behind Hawk goalie Alain Chevrier, only to have the score disallowed by referee Denis Morel.

``He said he had blown his whistle as soon as he lost sight of the puck,`` Ewen said later.

``That was a bad break there. I wish he could have watched it on replay or something. It was sitting there on the line. That would have changed the whole game. I`m at a loss for words. It changed the whole complexion of the game. Maybe they would have broken down and got frustrated instead of us. A bad break, sure.``

``He just blew it. A bad call, obviously,`` added wing Sergio Momesso, another example of a frustrated Blue.

Not only did Momesso take the shot that trickled through Chevrier`s legs and was knocked in by Ewen, at the start of the third period he offered up a blast from the left point that sailed through the crease and off the right post.

``That`s the one that really hurt us,`` he said. ``They came back on a 3- on-2 and scored (on Steve Thomas` goal). That was bad luck. It was just one of those nights-you kinda got that feeling when you saw they weren`t going in for us and were going in for them.

``That`s not an excuse. But you could see that the puck wasn`t bouncing our way.``

Or take, for a final example, Blues defenseman Gordie Roberts. With 5 minutes gone in the third period and the Hawks ahead 2-1, he watched in disbelief as Trent Yawney`s casual shot bounced off his pads and caromed past goalie Greg Millen.

``I tried to clear out of the way so Greg could see it,`` he said later.

``But I just didn`t get out of the way.``

``I didn`t see the second goal, and the third one was deflected,`` said Millen. ``That happens. We had a few breakdowns.``

The Blues, in fact, had breakdowns galore, and despite all the talk of bad breaks and bad bounces and bad calls, none felt cheated of a victory.

They, as the Hawks, started slowly, as slowly as a flat-footed heavyweight stalking a quarry, but, unlike the Hawks, they remained that way throughout the evening.

``We were a second slower, a second behind what we wanted to do. We did everything a step slow,`` is how coach Brian Sutter described their play, and he was graphically accurate.

``When you don`t have that quickness, that jump, you got no chance,`` is what Roberts said, and he was accurate as well.

``They beat us all over the ice. It was no contest tonight,`` said Millen, whose brilliance in goal was the only thing that made Tuesday night`s game resemble a contest. ``They got the breaks, too, but that`s the way it goes sometimes.

``You got to make your own breaks. They were going against us because we didn`t work tonight. Breaks are what you make them. Breaks look after themselves. They worked tonight, got the breaks and deserved to win. We didn`t.``

``We didn`t get untracked all night,`` concluded Sutter. ``We didn`t deserve to win. Give them credit. But I assure you, we can play a hell of a lot better.``