Wings And Blues Deadlocked

The Detroit Red Wings' winning streak is over. Their unbeaten streak is still intact, however.

Detroit had its eight-game winning streak snapped, but extended its unbeaten streak to nine games with a 1-1 tie in St. Louis Friday night.

With a win, the Red Wings would have tied the team record for most consecutive victories. But no one was complaining.

"The streak's still going," said Detroit goalie Bill Ranford, who made 25 saves. "We're undefeated. That's all the guys in the room care about."

Ranford scoffed at the notion that the Red Wings may have lost any momentum by getting a tie with the Blues, who are undefeated in their last five games.

"Are you kidding? We came out and we got a point," Ranford said. "I don't know for sure, but I think we're the two hottest teams in the league right now. It's a tough building to win in."

Detroit's Sergei Fedorov extended his scoring streak to 11 games with his 25th goal. Fedorov has seven goals and 17 points in those 11 contests. The Red Wings are 19-2-3 when Fedorov scores and 21-25-4 when he doesn't.

Grant Fuhr made 21 saves and Pierre Turgeon scored his 31st goal for Blues, who played before a season-high 20,370 fans at Kiel Center.

The Blues are 5-0-2 at home in the regular season against Detroit since losing 4-1 on Feb. 1, 1997. However, the Blues have been ousted the past three seasons in the playoffs by the Red Wings.

"It was a playoff atmosphere," Turgeon said. "You have to respect them, but not too much. The fact that we have played them (in the playoffs) the last few years gives us a big rivalry with them."

The Red Wings have won nine games in a row four times, the last coming March 3-22, 1996. That streak ended with a 2-2 tie in St. Louis on March 24, 1996.

Detroit is 8-0-1 since acquiring Ranford, Wendel Clark, Ulf Samuelsson and Chris Chelios at the trade deadlinMarch 23. Chelios missed Friday night's game with a groin injury and was replaced in the lineup by Samuelsson.

"That's the thing that's been really unique about the run that the team's had," Ranford said. "There have been different guys in the lineup every night."

St. Louis has still yet to win a game when scoring two goals or less (0-24-9).

Neither team was able to score for more than half the game until Fedorov connected with 3:00 left in the second period.

With Turgeon in the penalty box, Brendan Shanahan got the puck in the left circle after Scott Pellerin failed to clear the zone for the Blues. He passed cross ice to Nicklas Lidstrom, who eventually flipped a shot at Fuhr. It trickled past Fuhr and Fedorov slammed it into the open net.

Turgeon made amends by getting the tying goal 2:44 later with the Blues on the power play when he redirected a shot by Al MacInnis from the right point past Ranford.

"They scored when I had the penalty, so I was glad to get it back," Turgeon said.

The Blues outshot Detroit 9-2 in the third period but could not get one by Ranford.

"They did a very good job of checking (in the third period)," said Detroit associate coach Dave Lewis. "They shut down the neutral zone and we couldn't get in and get anything done forechecking-wise. They did a very good job there."

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