Off Topic » ety Mike Mitchell said.HANDS OFF: Roethlisberg

ST. LOUIS -- After the Colorado Avalanche shut out the St. Louis Blues on the road, coach Patrick Roy was still throwing down. Roy called Blues captain David Backes "gutless" for wrestling young Nathan MacKinnon to the ice during one of several late dust-ups in a fracas and penalty-filled 4-0 victory on Saturday. Backes had been coming to the aid of defenceman Kevin Shattenkirk, whod been cut by a high stick. "It shows what kind of leader he is, if youre going to go after an 18-year-old," Roy said. "Gutless in my opinion. I mean, Shattenkirk hurt himself with his own stick. "His own stick hit him in the nose and he was bleeding and he made a pretty big act." The Blues didnt quite take the bait, preferring to forget about this one and get ready for a matinee Sunday at Chicago. "He always has something to say after every game," coach Ken Hitchcock said of Roy. "So you guys pick up what he wants. Im worried about my team and the way we played, OK?" Hitchcock did, however, suggest that forward Patrick Bordealeau left his feet on the check that hurt Shattenkirk when his stick was jammed into his face. Hitchcock also mused that he probably should have given rugged Ryan Reaves more ice time after the game had gotten out of hand and added that it was more important to get his team back on track rather than call Gabriel Landeskog "gutless or whatever." Hitchcock referred to the confrontations and likely aftermath as the "debris around the game." Backes said Roy was "entitled to his opinion." "There were some liberties, I feel like," Backes said. "I drop my glove and never throw a punch and end up with whatever many penalty minutes out of the ordeal. "Its frustration, everything boiling over for a lot of guys after they dont respond well." Semyon Varlamov tied the franchise single-season record for goalie wins held by Roy and Paul Stastny had another big game in his hometown in the penalty-filled game. The Avalanche avoided a season series sweep against St. Louis after losing the first three meetings. "Our power play was sharp, penalty kill was rock solid, goaltending was phenomenal again," Roy said. "I just felt like we dominated them." Stastny had a goal and two assists and Mackinnon had a goal and an assist for Colorado, which has won six in a row. Roy became the fifth coach in NHL history to win 50 games in his first season. "It was kind of a big game for us," Stastny said. "It got chippy at the end but we stood up to that and will deal with that." Varlamov made 31 saves for his second shutout of the season and NHL-leading 40th win, matching Roys total in 2000-01. The Blues fell two points behind Boston, which beat the Flyers 5-2, for first place overall. Theyve been dependent on goalie Ryan Miller with Vladimir Tarasenko out since mid-March with a hand injury and Alexander Steen also sidelined, and scored two or fewer goals for the seventh time in 10 games. There were several scrums and frustration boiled over for the Blues late in the third. Ryan OReilly scored his 27th goal on a power play with a two-man advantage after Backes and Barret Jackman both received 10-minute misconducts. The Blues had 91 minutes in penalties in the third and finished the game with seven players on the bench. St. Louis has been shut out on home ice for the first two times all season in the past three games. Stastny, who grew up in St. Louis, has 30 points in 24 career games against the Blues. He has two goals and six assists in a seven-game point streak. The first five games in Colorados win streak were decided by one goal, two in overtime and two by shootouts. The first three goals against St. Louis came on rebounds. Stastny scored his 22nd goal on a power play at 1:14 of the second and MacKinnon had a wide open net at 6:20, a little more than a minute after Hitchcock called timeout. Nick Holden made it 3-0 at 10:25 after a lengthy review because he kicked the puck, but replays indicated the Blues Steve Otts stick touched the puck before it crossed the goal line. Notes: Roy is the first coach to win 50 games in his debut season since San Joses Todd McLellan won 53 games in 2008-09. ... Steen (lower body) did not dress for the second straight game and Hitchcock said hes also out Sunday. Zach Hyman Maple Leafs Jersey . -- Theres been so much talk about Mike Moustakas at the plate that the third baseman ignored the conversation Wednesday -- even after doing something positive. Felix Potvin Maple Leafs Jersey . But defending champion Elena Vesnina of Russia held off a strong challenge to beat Shuai Peng of China 6-3, 6-4, and there was another hard-fought victory for 2012 runner-up Angelique Kerber of Germany, who defeated Alison Riske of the United States 7-6 (6), 6-4. http://www.mapleleafsteamstoreonline.com/authentic-andreas-johnsson-maple-leafs-jersey/ . Henderson (20-3) received winning scores of 48-47 and 49-46, and the other judge scored it 48-47 for Thomson (20-6). The announcement drew boos from the United Center crowd. "Train this hard for this long, its such a long camp and I see my title shot disappear," said Thomson, who fought most of the fight with a broken right hand. Michael Hutchinson Maple Leafs Jersey . 22. Wade averaged 26.3 points, 4.3 rebounds, 2.7 assists and 2.0 steals while leading the Heat to a 3-0 record. The 31-year-old shot 60 percent from the field and 50 percent from 3-point range en route to his 17th weekly honor. Johnny Bower Maple Leafs Jersey . In his first game with Boston University, the 17-year-old Eichel picked up five assists as his Boston University Terriers thumped St.PITTSBURGH, Pa. - Kenny Stills ran all alone down the sideline, ball tucked under his arm, and the New Orleans Saints very much in charge.Suddenly a mess at home, the Saints found themselves on the road. Stills 69-yard catch-and-run in the third quarter served as the exclamation point of a 35-32 win over the Pittsburgh Steelers on Sunday that finally had the Saints looking like a first-place team on the field, not just in the standings.Drew Brees passed for five touchdowns for the ninth time in his career. Stills hauled in five catches for 162 yards and his game-breaking score for New Orleans (5-7), which ended a three-game losing streak by dominating the ever erratic Steelers (7-5).Offensively, defensive and on special teams, we can play with the best teams in the league, running back Mark Ingram said. As long as we dont hurt ourselves, we can win football games.Certainly looked like it as Ingram finished with 122 yards rushing and the lacklustre New Orleans defence forced a pair of Ben Roethlisberger interceptions that Brees turned into touchdowns the other way. While the Saints werent perfect — allowing a pair of late Pittsburgh scores to make the final closer than the reality — they looked the part of a contender while winning for the first time in a month.One of the leaders of a division that has served as a punchline of late, New Orleans scored a blow for the NFC South by pushing Pittsburgh around.Winning is everything to this team, linebacker Junior Galette said. As long as Ive been here, we never lost three games in a row, especially at home, so this was a big win today. We entered this game professionally and went out there and did the job.And Pittsburgh continued to spin in place. Roethlisberger passed for 435 yards and two touchdowns to Antonio Brown but also tossed the two costly interceptions. LeVeon Bell piled up 254 total yards — 159 receiving and another 95 rushing — but the Steelers didnt exactly come out of their bye week with any sort of sizzle. Three of Pittsburghs five losses have come against teams at least three games under .500.Its got to stop, defensive end Cam Heyward said. Everybody. Top to bottom. Weve got to stop doing this.dddddddddddd Were shooting ourselves in the foot and weve got too many good guys, too many good players to not win these games.For whatever reason, the Steelers are not winning them, and time is running out.Some other things we learned with a month to go in the regular season.NO GRAHAM, NO PROBLEM: New Orleans tight end Jimmy Graham spent four quarters as the most talented decoy on the field. It hardly mattered. With the Steelers focusing much of their attention on stopping one of the NFLs top targets, Brees went to work. His five touchdown passes went to Stills, Marques Colston, Erik Lorig, Ben Watson and Nick Toon.I dont care if I get zero catches, 10 catches or 20, as long as we win, Graham said.SO LONG TO DA BEARD? Pittsburgh defensive end Brett Keisel left in the third quarter with a torn triceps and didnt return. The 36-year-old Keisels locker was already clear by the time the media entered after the game. His season, if not his career, appears to be in jeopardy.It almost makes you want to cry when you lose a guy like that because hes a leader and so instrumental to what we do here, safety Mike Mitchell said.HANDS OFF: Roethlisberger hit just 32 of 58 passes but refused to place blame on a bum right hand. The quarterback shook the hand several times after slamming it into the helmet of New Orleans linebacker Curtis Lofton in the first quarter.It was just one of those days that the balls were coming out high, he said.FIGHT NIGHT: New Orleans coach Sean Payton and defensive co-ordinator Rob Ryan exchanged words in the third quarter when the Saints were forced to call timeout because they had 12 players on the field. Despite reports of dissention between Payton and Ryan, Payton said there are no issues between the two.I love what hes doing, Payton said.LOOKING AHEAD: Even though Pittsburgh trails Cincinnati by 1.5 games the Steelers are in control of their fate. Pittsburgh plays the Bengals twice over the final month, including a meeting next Sunday in Cincinnati. The Saints host Carolina next Sunday. New Orleans beat the Panthers 28-10 on Oct. 30.___AP NFL website: www.pro32.ap.org and http://twitter.com/AP_NFL ' ' '