Blues Bounce Devils In OT

The second time the St. Louis Blues put a late deflection past Martin Brodeur, it wasn't a false alarm.

Pierre Turgeon scored his second goal of the game with 1:43 to go in overtime after Jamal Mayers' apparent goal was disallowed with 0.7 seconds to go in regulation as the Blues cooled off the New Jersey Devils 4-3 Thursday night.

"I thought I waited until (my stick) got down below the crossbar, but I guess not," said Mayers, who deflected a shot by Bryce Salvador. "I can't be that lucky. I'm glad Turgeon was able to show me how to do it in the end."

The Blues rallied in the extra period after squandering a pair of two-goal leads. They handed the defending Stanley Cup champions, playing for the second straight night, only their second loss in 17 games.

"We'd like to have a better measuring stick by not playing the night before, when you're coming in against one of the better teams in the league," said Devils coach Larry Robinson. "We really battled back hard and at least we got a point out of this one."

Turgeon, second on the Blues with 22 goals, deflected a Todd Reirden shot from the point for the game winner. Turgeon also scored on a backhander early in the third period.

"Obviously you just try to put your stick on it, you don't try to put it in the corner," Turgeon said of the game-winner. "But it went in the corner and it's a big goal, a big win and obviously a good feeling."

Mogilny's goal on the power play evened it up at 6:31 of the third period for the Devils, who overcame a slow start after winning 4-1 in Dallas on Wednesday night.

Mogilny, who has 27 goals and 53 points, has 20 goals and 10 assists in the last 21 games. He had an easy tap-in after Randy McKay hit the crossbar.

Fourth-line forward Mayers had a goal and an assist for the Blues, who experienced a rare late breakdown. They entered the game 27-0-1 when leading after two periods.

The Blues have two victories without captain Chris Pronger, who underwent arthroscopic knee surgery on Tuesday and will be out four to six weeks. Alexander Khavanov, expected to pick up much of Pronger's 28 minutes a game on defense, also scored for St. Louis.

Turgeon got his 21st goal on an innocent-looking backhander to put the Blues ahead 3-1 just 55 seconds in the final period. The goal came during a four-minute power play after Scott Gomez drew a double-minor for high sticking.

Gomez cut the gap to a goal when Petr Sykora's high shot deflected off his upper body and sailed over the shoulder of Blues goalie Roman Turek at 3:28 of the third.

"It hit me in the chest and the shoulder," Gomez said. "Thank God I went this way because it deflected in that way."

The first period was almost all Blues, until the horn, with the fourth line leading the way.

"Maybe that first period was as good as we've played any period all year," coach Joel Quenneville said.

Mayers scored his fourth goal on a rebound shot at 3:45 and he won the faceoff to set up the second goal. Khavanov connected on a point shot that deflected off Bobby Holik's stick at 11:17 to put St. Louis ahead 2-0.

The Devils, outshot 12-8 in the period, cut the deficit to a goal when Elias tapped in a rebound shot with two-hundreths of a second left in the period.

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