blues into playoffs beat tb by dave luecking of the post dispatch staff at thursday night the scoreboard watchers at the arena began to cheer their cheer quickly turned into a roar and finally the sellout crowd of rose as one to rock the old barn at oakland avenue in a salute to the playoff bound blues the scoreboard had just flashed the news from detroit red wings stars with the north stars loss the blues officially clinched fourth place and the final playoff spot in the norris division good thing because the blues quit playing they held a lead over tampa bay when the detroit minnesota final appeared with minutes remaining in the second period they promptly went to sleep and barely held on for a victory that nearly slipped away at the buzzer tampa s bob beers tipped in a pass from shawn chambers but officiating supervisor john d amico and video goal judge rich schweigler ruled that the shot had gone into the net after time had expired i m glad i didn t see it go in at the end blues coach bob berry said if the goal had counted he d have been more upset than he was by the blues disappearance in the final minutes holding on for the victory and making the playoffs tempered berry s anger it wasn t pretty at the end he said we played great minutes as good as we played all year it slipped away at the end it shouldn t have but it did still the blues won prompting another ovation from the crowd at game s end despite their shoddy effort in the third period and all the turmoil this season the blues still made the playoffs they ll meet the chicago blackhawks in a best of seven norris division semifinal beginning at noon sunday at chicago stadium the blues finished the regular season with a record of for points their fourth consecutive plus season minnesota finished three points behind in fifth place with a record of for points tampa bay which played spoiler last week by tying the blues at tampa ended its first season with a record of for points the poor finish cast an unnecessary shadow over what should have been a joyous blues locker room instead the mood was one of relief and some disappointment it s a shame we let down said kevin miller one of three blues to score two goals brendan shanahan and bob bassen were the others there was no need for a letdown if we d have kept working it would have ended and everyone would be happy instead a lot of players were happy just to make the playoffs we won and that s all that matters said brett hull scoreless and minus for the night once we got up it was really tough to play some players didn t have a problem just because the score was announced our line didn t quit said rich sutter who played with bassen and miller we still had a game to play you can t allow five goals like we did that s not right it was disappointing to see what was going on bassen was almost frantic on the bench because of the blues effort somehow he missed the announcement of minnesota s loss i didn t know it was final he said i was kind of looking around on the bench i didn t realize it was a final for some reason we re in the playoffs and that s great but it s a little disappointing to play like we did at the end the letdown was precisely the reason that berry had instructed the scoreboard operators to keep the minnesota detroit score off of the board the score showed until it first popped up with detroit leading in the third period the blues already led at the time i told them i didn t want to see the score i didn t want to know the score berry said i felt we had to win the game and that s the approach we took if minnesota took a lead berry feared the pressure of having to win might bother the blues if detroit led he worried the blues might quit until the announcement the blues played splendidly shanahan got the crowd going at of the first period scoring his th of the season then miller and bassen took charge late in the period with the teams playing four on four miller broke in on left wing deked defenseman roman hamrlik and beat former blues goalie pat jablonski with the rebound of his own shot with seconds remaining in the period then just seconds later bassen rifled a long slap shot past jablonski after defenseman rick zombo intercepted a tampa pass in the neutral zone bassen made it just seconds into the second period scoring on the rebound of bret hedican s shot the goal gave him his first two goal game of the season and reminded him of a special friend last year bassen befriended young oliver mulvihill who died of a rare form of cancer at age on feb i was thinking of my buddy oliver bassen said he s in heaven now and i know he was watching i know he s happy miller increased the blues lead to on a break away goal set up by zombo at then steve maltais broke curtis joseph s shutout just seconds later making it less than a minute after the north stars final was announced tim bergland scored and cut the lead to but shanahan scored his st converting a pass from nelson emerson with seconds remaining in the second period then it was all lightning adam creighton scored seconds into the third period prompting berry to rest the overworked joseph guy hebert allowed goals to shawn chambers and danton cole in a span of midway through the third period the goals by chambers and cole made shanahan s second goal stand up as the winner we were in there shanahan said the game was over we were in a l l e z l e s b l u e s joe ashkar contact for the blues saint louis jca cec wustl edu blues
