Coyotes Given The Blues

December 22, 1999 / 1:39 AM EST / CBS/AP

Mike Eastwood had good reason not to think about a hat trick after scoring two first-period goals.

"It's been a few years," Eastwood said. "I've never had one as a professional, that's for sure."

Eastwood scored midway through the second period for his first NHL hat trick as the St. Louis Blues routed the slumping Phoenix Coyotes 6-0 Tuesday night.

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"They just took it to us," Phoenix captain Keith Tkachuk said. "It was embarrassing."

Roman Turek, rarely threatened until the closing minutes, made 17 saves for his third shutout of the season and fifth of his career. His 16 victories are second only to the 17 of New Jersey's Martin Brodeur and Toronto's Curtis Joseph.

Pavel Demitra, Tyson Nash and Lubos Bartecko also scored and Michal Handzus added three assists for the Blues (21-9-3), who are unbeaten in their last five games (4-0-1) and are 8-2-1 in their last 11 contests.

The shutout was the second straight for the Blues, the first time St. Louis has accomplished the feat since 1988.

"He certainly earned it tonight," said St. Louis coach Joel Quenneville. "He didn't have to make a ton of saves but he was sharp in the net."

The Coyotes (19-12-3) lost for the fifth time in six games and have scored only six goals over that stretch.

"I'm not happy about it," Phoenix coach Bob Francis said. "You can say there were bad bounces, which is a crock. Look at all the missed assignments we had in the first period. What you se is what you get. Figure it out. We've been beating a dead horse for days."

St. Louis needed just over three minutes to take the lead against Robert Esche, in his first start since Dec. 11. Nash took a pass from Jamal Mayers and beat Esche with a short wrist shot for his third goal and his first since Nov. 27.

Eastwood made it 2-0 at 7:28 of the period as the Blues killed off a Phoenix power play. Eastwood blocked a shot high in the Blues zone, took the puck and faked Esche to the ice before firing over the goalie's right shoulder for an unassisted goal.

The Blues added three more goals in the final 6:28 of the first period, two coming from the top of the crease. Eastwood scored his second goal on a shot from a tight angle from below the bottom of the right faceoff circle.

Eastwood completed the hat trick at 7:18 of the second period when he took a pass from Jochen Hecht at the side of the net and slid the puck past Esche for his 12th goal of the year.