St. Louis Post-Dispatch from St. Louis, Missouri • Page 35

SECTION May 13,1885 DulnetPages8-14 ClassifiedPage 15-18 STLOUIS POST-DISPATCH Flames Hold Off Another Comeback By Blues To Win Seventh Game 2-1 1-1 -I LUES CALOARY 1 FIRST PERIOD Moclnolt 4 (T Hunter. Moc our) 42 Penalties Romoge IB) 12:37, Peollntkl (C) 1237. BorKI (C) 17 2 SECONO PERIOD Patterson (Re innart) 1 42 Penalties Baxter (C) I S3. Nottreis (B) 147; Bwi IB) 1 52. Romog IB) Norwood IB), maior.

17 37, T. Hunter (C), mo-lor-mlsconouct, 17 37 THIRD PERIOD (PPG) Beers 1 (NoltrMi, Federko) 02 Penolties Borttt (C) 34 TontHI (C) IS 40; Mocoun (C) 16 52 SHOTS ON GOAL BLUES I 7-11 CALOARY 1 11 1-21 Goaltenderi Blues. Wamtlv (4-4); Calgary. Vernon (11-S) Referee Andy van Mel-lemond. A 16.762.

CANADIENS GOALIE dreams of winning Stanley Cup 6D By Tom WheatJey the Poel-Ditpatch SUft CALGARY, Alberta The Blues' miracle run ended here Wednesday night by plowing into a snowbank. A mid-May blizzard dumped more than a foot of snow on Calgary, and the Flames in turn dumped on the Blues 2-1. The Blues' Stanley Cup hopes joined a long list of cancellations that included power outages, school closings, traffic snarls and an airport shutdown. A Saddledome crowd of 16,762 mucked through the slush to celebrate as their Flames pulled off a bloodless coup In Came 7 of the Campbell Conference finals. By losing, the Blues missed out on a fourth trip to the Stanley Cup finals, a destination that has eluded them since 1970.

The Flames, meanwhile, will go after their first National Hockey League championship here on Friday against the Montreal Canadiens. The Blues were outshot 25-18. But until they got a two-man advantage with 3 minutes 8 seconds to play, they had only 13 shots and two In the third period. The Flames killed off the first penalty. Then ex-Calgary winger Eddy Beers scored a power-play goal from the right of the net with 1:58 left to make It 2-1.

The Blues pulled goalie Rick Wamsley and applied pressure with the extra attacker, but they could not pull another one out of the hat. There Is a saying in hockey press boxes that there is no such thing as a bad seventh game. But the first two periods Wednesday game put a crimp In that cliche. Unlike the Blues' rousing rally In Game 6 for a 6-5 overtime victory, the thrills In Game 7 peaked in warmups. The Blues had staved off elimination three times In these playoffs, Including Monday's three-goal comeback at The Arena.

But when they went to that adrenaline well one more time Wednesday, it was frozen over. In the third period of Game 6, the Blues saturated rookie goalie Mike Vernon with 19 shots. They mustered up only two In the first 12 minutes of Wednesday's final period as the Flames forechecked ruthlessly. The Blues gave up a goal In each of the first two periods while being out-shot 23-11. The Flames blasted out of the blocks in the first period, which was conducted almost exclusively in the Blues' end.

The Blues were outshot 10-5, with three of those shots launched from outside the blue line. In the first five games of the series, the team that scored first had scored the most. Calgary took a 1-0 lead less than six minutes into the game on a drive from the right point by defenseman Al Maclnnls. Winger Tim Hunter, Calgary's sergeant-at-arms, hacked at goalie Rick Wamsley just as the puck arrived. Wamsley, seated on the ice, angrily tugged at Hunter's stick and held on for a short ride.

The Blues missed their best chance when Greg Paslawski, a Game 6 standout with two late goals, shot wide on a breakaway. He was set up on a slick, cross-Ice poke pass from Brian Sutter, who continued to frus-See BLUES, Page 18 Robert C. Holt IllPost-Dispatch Lanny McDonald of the Calgary Flames jabs at the puck as The Flames defeated the Blues 2-1 in Wednesday night's final Blues goalie Rick Wamsley falls backward into the crease, game of their Campbell Conference series and advanced to the Blues defenseman Jim Pavese shoves McDonald from behind. Stanley Cup finals against Montreal. 3 sis ft Anull Hnffltey mm a LA Is Nursed 'I- Five Miscues In 8-3 Defeat By Rick Hummel Of the Pott-Dispatch Stiff In a season of a few peaks and several more valleys, the Cardinals fell face first Into an abyss Wednesday.

How bad was It, this 8-3 setback to the Los Angeles Dodgers? "A very shaky performance, to say the least," Andy Van Slyke offered. "We didn't put forth a very good effort," Jack Clark said. "We didn't do anything well," Tom Herr said. "We made five errors. We didn't swing the bats; we didn't pitch well.

It was a combined effort" Once the Dodgers' Mike Scioscia started catching Fernando Valenzue-la's pitches, the Cardinals were In trouble. In a two-run first Inning, Ozzie Smith made it from first to home In three pitches wild pitch, wild pitch, passed ball. One pitch later, Willie McGee was hit by a low pitch and he scored on Terry Pendleton's single. But Valenzuela rounded Into form and, in one early-inning stretch, froze five successive batters on third strikes. He had nine strikeouts for the game before yielding to Ed Vande Berg for mop-up duty in the ninth inning.

The Dodgers are argubly the worst defensive team In the National League Los Angeles has 47 errors in 35 games but they may have dragged the Cardinals down to their level. Loser Tim Conroy and Rick Own-bey both made wild pickoff throws. Herr missed a grounder, only his second error of the year. Vince Coleman muffed a basket catch of a pop fly, and Mike Heath's throw to second glanced off a runner. But manager Whitey Herzog said he didn't think this was the worst de-See CARDS, Page WV" To Recovery By John Sonderegger Of thtPoit-Ditpatch Staff So your baseball team is sick and needs a little attention.

Send it to the new St. Louis City Hospital a.k.a. Busch Stadium. The guys dressed in white can do wonders for ailing visitors. The Los Angeles Dodgers limped into St.

Louis with a four-game losing streak and had lost six of their previous seven games. But the Cardinals were just the medicine the Dodgers needed. On Tuesday night, Los Angeles won 6-5 as lefthanded reliever Ken Day-ley came up flat in extra Innings. On Wednesday afternoon, the Cardinals made five errors and their pitchers were knocked about like punching bags as the Dodgers banged a season-high 17 hits. Lefthander Fernando Valenzuela struck out nine Redbirds getting five in succession on called third strikes at one point and cruised to the 8-3 triumph.

The Instant cure a two-game winning streak for the Dodgers made them 4-1 against the Cardinals this season. The Cardinals made seven errors In the two-game set. Whenever the Dodgers needed treatment Wednesday, it seemed that the Cardinals were handy with a booster shot. Some examples: Starting pitcher Tim Conroy threw wildly to first base on an easy grounder to him by Mike Marshall, giving the Dodgers their first run. Catcher Mike Heath winged the ball off Mariano Duncan at second base and Into center field after Duncan had the base stolen in the third as the Dodgers scored a pair of runs.

Second baseman Tom Herr let an easy chance get the best of him In the fifth, and relief pitcher Rick Own-See DODGERS, Page 5 1 -jy ft. -o1 i Wayne CrosslinPost-Dispatch With coach Nick Leyva pointing to third base and Dodgers Smith shifts gears to run home. Smith eventually was tagged catcher Mike Scioscia chasing him that way, the Cards' Ozzie out by Fernando Valenzuela. Umpire Dick Stello looks on. IPireaEiiiDess Ds Snow Enieff's SHiofi 1986, Los Angelas Timet BALTIMORE Well, what happened? That has been a nagging question since Snow Chiefs llth-place finish as the favorite in the Kentucky Derby.

Two weeks later, still not knowing the answer, trainer Mel Stute will give Snow Chief a chance for redemption Saturday when he starts the 3-year-old colt in the 111th running of the Preakness Stakes at Pimlico. Snow Chief won't be the favorite this time. His abysmal performance in the Derby took care of that. In what looms as a seven-horse Preakness, Snow Chief probably will be the fourth betting choice, behind Derby winner Ferdinand, Wayne Lukas' entry of Badger Land and Dear Choice, and Broad Brush. Trainers say that there are a thousand ways to lose a horse race, and there are at least six theories as to why Snow Chief failed in the Derby.

Before becoming the flop of Churchill Downs, Snow Chief had won nine of 13 starts and was on a five-race winning streak. He also had run second twice and third once, and his only finish off the board had been a sixth last summer at Hollywood Park, where he came out of the race with sore shins. These are the theories: In training since last August, Snow Chief peaked while winning the Florida and Santa Anita derbies early this year. When he arrived in Kentucky, he was a horse on the way down, as they say on the backstretch. Snow Chief hadn't had a race in a month, a long layoff for horses that usually win the Derby.

Snow Chief didn't like the track at Churchill Downs. He needed more training in Kentucky and less in California. Snow Chief isn't a mile-and-a-quarter horse. Snow Chief was too close to a punishing pace in the early going. Class finally caught up with the cheaply bred colt, who was attempting to become only the fourth California-bred winner in Derby history.

Some of these theories have little validity. During his winning streak, for instance, Snow Chief ran to three of his five victories at about 30-day intervals. Ferdinand won the Derby after not having raced for a month. Jockey Alex Solis thought that Snow Chief was moving well, and they were in contention until the quarter pole, which Isn't a sign of a horse not adjusting to a track. Snow Chiefs humble breeding was enough for him to beat Ferdinand, Badger Land, Icy Groom and Mogambo earlier in the year.

All four of those horses finished from Bachelor Beau, who wound up 1 4th. Solis, who will ride Snow Chief again in the Preakness, indicated that the start had something to do with being so close to Groovy and the others. "My horse was moving his head when the door (of the starting gate) opened," Soils said. "He stumbled coming out and then tried to take off running as he recovered." Stute remembered that Snow Chief bad run close behind a fast pace on Feb. 2 in the El Camino Real Derby at Bay Meadows.

He won that race, but it was at a distance of only 1 116 miles, and even though the field included Badger Land, it wasn't against a group of seasoned horses such as Snow Chief raced in the Kentucky Derby. Two things that didn't contribute to Snow Chiefs bomb in Louisville were his behavior before the race and his physical condition during it The noisy, crowded paddock at Churchill Downs usually spooks at least a few Derby horses. Bachelor Beau, in the stall next to Snow Chief as they were being saddled, acted up and started kicking, but the California horse just stood there until it was time to leave for the track. Because of Snow Chiefs poor showing, Stute had the colt examined after the Derby. The examination included a scoping of the horse's lungs to see If he had bled during the race.

Everything was negative. 3 to 19 lengths ahead of Snow Chief in the Derby. A month before their rematch in Louisville, Ferdinand had finished third, seven lengths behind Snow Chief, in the Santa Anita Derby. That's a swing of 26 lengths. Immediately after the Derby, Stute was second-guessing himself about the way Snow Chief had been prepared for the race.

This week, he still has been asking himself whether it was wise to work Snow Chief only once over the Churchill Downs strip. Snow Chief worked three times at Santa Anita between his win in the Santa Anita Derby and his departure for Kentucky. Stute and Snow Chiefs owners, former trainer Carl Grinstead and Ben Rochelle, still must believe that 1 Vt miles are within the colt's capabilities, because they are holding open the option of running in the $1 million Jersey Derby at Garden State Park. The Jersey Derby, only nine days after the Preakness, is 1 yA miles. A dislike for the track, the pre-Derby training schedule and the ride by Solis are the reasons that Stute keeps returning to in his Derby retrospective.

"The pace was a little fast," Stute said. "All four horses that were up there early finished way back at the end." Besides Snow Chief, they were Groovy, who was last in the 16-horse field after setting some of the fastest early fractions in Derby history; Zabaleta, who ran 12th; and 1 -t..