Two Distinctly Different Views of 187 Seconds That Turned a 3-0 Kings Lead Into a 4-3 Loss for the Ages

The St. Louis Blues felt as if they were caught in an undertow. They couldn’t get the puck to the net on their power play, couldn’t get anything at all past rookie King goaltender Jamie Storr and they trailed, 3-0, Monday as the Forum resounded with chants of “Ja-mie! Ja-mie!”

“They had a commanding lead and the crowd was going crazy,” Blues’ right wing Jim Campbell said. “And then we started popping in goals.

“The whole time we felt we could do it. When we got the first one, it cracked the ice. It came so fast, we didn’t have time to think.”

When the ice chips settled, the Blues had scored four goals in 3 minutes 7 seconds during a major penalty against King defenseman Sean O’Donnell, grabbing a 4-3 victory at the Forum and a 3-0 lead in their best-of-seven playoff series.

“In my whole life, I’ve never seen anything like it,” Campbell said Tuesday. “I couldn’t believe it, it was so exciting. I went to bed and couldn’t sleep. I was too excited to sleep and too tired to move.”

The comeback was the result of luck and skill, of subtle plays and the obvious benefit of getting a five-minute power play on a controversial call at 8:34 of the third period. Minor penalties against Ian Laperriere and Geoff Courtnall balanced each other out, leaving O’Donnell’s five-minute penalty.

Courtnall, older brother of King right wing Russ Courtnall and one of the NHL’s most annoying but effective players, set events in motion when he plowed into Storr, sending him reeling into the post after the goalie had reached out to touch the puck, with a delayed penalty pending against the Kings. According to Courtnall, the contact wasn’t planned.

“The goaltender stepped out in front of me,” he said. “I was just trying to cut around the net. I thought he was going to fake [a pass]. I was going pretty fast too. There was no way I could change my direction. I was coming in at a pretty good clip.”

That’s his story, and he’s sticking to it.

“If I wanted to hit the guy, I would have just run right over top of him,” Courtnall said.

Changing personnel helped change the Blues’ power-play luck. Left wing Pascal Rheaume--brother of female goaltender Manon Rheaume--gets only occasional power-play time, but Coach Joel Quenneville wanted a different mix and sent Rheaume out with centers Pierre Turgeon and Terry Yake. Quenneville’s hunch paid off when a shot by Al MacInnis hit King defenseman Garry Galley and caromed into the slot, where Rheaume backhanded it past Storr at 9:59.

“Any time you get a five-minute power play and you can score early, things are going to be in your favor,” defenseman Chris Pronger said. “Scoring a minute in gives us four minutes to get at least one more. We got essentially two power plays to score two goals, and we started generating some chances. We said, ‘We’ve got to try to get the puck to the net and get some rebounds.’ ”

The second goal was a quick play. Pronger, regaining his poise after taking two needless penalties and leaving the Blues down two men late in the second period, took a shot that rocketed off the end boards and the side of the net. Campbell, with King defenseman Rob Blake in pursuit, pounced on the loose puck and threw it in front to Brett Hull, who beat Storr to the far side at 11:03.

“The second one took the life right out of them,” Geoff Courtnall said.

Campbell, discarded by the Mighty Ducks two years ago, figured in the third goal, although he didn’t get an assist. It was his quick thinking and quick action that kept the puck in along the left-wing boards, and he passed back to Pronger at the blue line. Pronger fed MacInnis for a shot that Turgeon redirected past a helpless Storr at 11:59 to tie the score.

“It was a good pass,” Turgeon said. “I just had to touch it and it went right in the top corner. It was a big goal for us.”

Said St. Louis defenseman Steve Duchesne, “Pierre was flying and everybody was working hard. Everyone believed we could win it.”

The Kings couldn’t believe what was happening.

“You could see the bench was a little flat and a little dead,” said Duchesne, a former King. “I feel for those guys, but I’d rather be on our end, not the other end.”

The Blues capped their comeback at 13:06. Yake, who also gets little power-play time but was sent out as a reward for consistently winning faceoffs, cleanly beat Jozef Stumpel on a faceoff inside the Kings’ blue line. The puck went back to the right point to MacInnis, who slid it over to Duchesne for a shot that glanced off Storr’s glove. As Courtnall took out Galley and Aki Berg, Yake pounced on the rebound and flicked it past Storr.

“You go to the net and you get your point shots through,” Quenneville said. “They don’t have to be pretty.”

Just the same, it was a thing of beauty for the Blues.

“I was so happy I couldn’t get to sleep until, I think, 4 a.m.,” Turgeon said. “After a game, sometimes you have to think about bad things, but we had only good things. This situation could bring positive things for later on, that we could come back.”

It also makes it nearly impossible for the Kings to come back.