// a href = ./ // St Louis News, Weather, Sports, The Big 550 AM, St Louis Traffic, Breaking News in St Louis

KTRS News

KTRS News

LA KINGS' QUICK BLANKS BLUES 1-0

Monday, 06 May 2013 06:52 Published in Sports
LOS ANGELES (AP) -- From the opening minutes to St. Louis' final flurries, Jonathan Quick played every puck with the desperate determination necessary to win the Stanley Cup.

Even when the crease-crashing Blues knocked his mask off his head, the Kings' gritty goalie kept his focus on a win that got Los Angeles back into a tense first-round series dominated by defense.

Quick made 30 saves in his fifth career playoff shutout, leading the Kings to a 1-0 victory Saturday night and trimming the Blues' series lead to 2-1.

Slava Voynov scored in the second period for the defending NHL champions, who got a brilliant performance from their Conn Smythe Trophy-winning goalie.

After making self-described mistakes that led to both of the Blues' winning goals in St. Louis, Quick won his duel with Brian Elliott, who stopped 20 shots.

"It's what you expect when these two teams play each other," Quick said. "They were just throwing pucks from everywhere, but we handled it well and cleaned up most of the rebounds."

Los Angeles will attempt to even the series in Game 4 on Monday night.

After struggling on the power play and getting bad luck on a handful of chances, St. Louis even resorted to more unconventional means to mess with Quick.

David Perron appeared to dive into Quick in the crease in the third period, with Quick's mask coming off his head in an exchange that ended with the Blues getting a power play, thanks to Drew Doughty's overreaction.

None of it could throw Quick off the formidable game that carried the Kings to the Cup last season.

"Quickie had to be really good for us tonight, but the way he played is no surprise to anybody," Kings captain Dustin Brown said.

The Blues' power play hasn't scored in 12 straight opportunities since early in the series opener, and they wasted plenty of good chances against Quick in Game 3. Elliott has allowed just three goals in the series, but Quick kept the Kings unbeaten at home since March 23.

"You're not going to get very many games like this where you get this many quality chances on the road," St. Louis coach Ken Hitchcock said. "We were unlucky, more than anything."

Staples Center was packed with black-clad, towel-waving fans who fondly remember the Kings' nearly surreal run through last spring's playoffs.

Eighth-seeded Los Angeles went 16-4 in the postseason, beating the Western Conference's top three seeds and taking a 3-0 lead in every series - an NHL first - on the way to its first Stanley Cup title.

The Kings never faced an elimination game or even a tight spot last spring, but the fourth-seeded Blues immediately put them in a jam in this series with consecutive victories at home.

Quick sought the blame for both losses after allowing the overtime winner in the opener and a last-minute goal in Game 2, but his teammates realized they deserved the blame for their meager offensive effort against Elliott, who got outplayed by Quick in last year's playoff series.

"It's the time to stay even-keeled, because these games are all going to be close," Elliott said. "Every play gets amped up, and you've got to take care of details."

The scoreless, tight-checking first period of Game 3 reflected the nervousness in the arena. After Los Angeles killed off a penalty early in the second, Voynov capitalized on a lengthy scramble in front of Elliott's net, putting a shot through traffic into the far corner for the Russian defenseman's first playoff goal since last season's second-round series opener against St. Louis.

The Blues largely dominated puck possession and good scoring chances for long stretches of the final two periods. Alexander Steen, who scored both of the Blues' goals in Game 1, inexplicably couldn't put it into a fairly open net on a power play late in the period, shanking his shot.

During Perron's shenanigans in the third, Doughty followed Perron into the net and slugged the Blues forward several times, drawing a double minor for roughing and putting St. Louis on a fruitless power play. Perron and Quick have jawed throughout the series, and Perron claimed the Blues were "starting to get to" Los Angeles' star goalie after Game 2.

Elliott kept the Blues in it with less than 7 minutes left, stopping Dwight King on a clean breakaway. Justin Williams then saved the Kings with about 5 minutes left, diving to knock away a loose puck on the edge of the crease.

"When it gets late in the game like that, you're trying everything you can to stop the puck," Williams said. "The story for us was Jonathan Quick, though. That's the difference for us."

St. Louis was swept out of the second round in four games last spring by Los Angeles, which outscored the Blues 15-6 while ending their breakthrough season under Jack Adams Trophy-winning coach Ken Hitchcock.

The Blues turned in another strong regular season this winter, even surging past Los Angeles and San Jose into the fourth playoff seed in the final days.

The Kings went 19-4-1 at home this season, posting the best points percentage at home in franchise history. They finished the regular season with seven straight wins at Staples Center.

NOTES: The Kings scratched C Jordan Nolan and dressed D Alec Martinez, who hadn't played since April 2. Martinez, who picked up an assist on Voynov's goal, was a key member of last season's defensive group, but fell out of favor in March after his return from an upper-body injury. Los Angeles dressed seven defensemen. ... St. Louis used the same lineup from its first two victories. ... The Kings have rallied from a 0-2 series deficit just once in franchise history, beating Detroit in 2001.

© 2013 THE ASSOCIATED PRESS. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. THIS MATERIAL MAY NOT BE PUBLISHED, BROADCAST, REWRITTEN OR REDISTRIBUTED. Learn more about our PRIVACY POLICY and TERMS OF USE.
WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. employers added 165,000 jobs in April, and hiring was much stronger in the previous two months than the government first estimated. The job increases reduced the unemployment rate from 7.6 percent to a four-year low of 7.5 percent.

The report Friday from the Labor Department was a reassuring sign that the U.S. job market is improving despite higher taxes and government spending cuts that took effect this year.

The government revised up its estimate of job gains in February and March by a combined 114,000. It now says employers added 332,000 jobs in February and 138,000 in March. The economy has created an average of 208,000 jobs a month from November through April — above the 138,000 added in the previous six months.

"This is a good report," said John Silvia, chief economist at Wells Fargo. "There's a lot of strength... It's good for the economy. It's good for people's income."

The stronger job growth suggests that the federal budget cutting "does not mean recession," Silvia said. "It does not mean a dramatic slowdown."

Stock prices soared when trading began on Wall Street at 9:30 a.m. Eastern time. The Dow was up 155 points in early trading.

The unemployment rate has fallen 0.4 percentage point since the start of the year, though it remains high. The Federal Reserve has said it plans to keep short-term interest rates at record lows at least until unemployment falls to 6.5 percent.

The hiring last month was broad-based. The only sectors of the economy that cut jobs were construction and government.

Some higher-paying sectors added workers. Professional and technical services, which includes accounting, engineering and architecture, added 23,000 jobs. Education and health services added 44,000.

But some of the bigger job gains were in lower-paying fields, such as hotels and restaurants, which added 45,000 jobs, and retail, which added 29,000. Temporary help firms gained 31,000 positions.

The job growth is occurring while the U.S. economy is growing modestly but steadily. It expanded at a 2.5 percent annual rate in the January-March quarter, fueled by the strongest consumer spending in two years.

The global economy, by contrast, is slowing. The European Union warned Friday, for example, that the 17 countries that use the euro currency will shrink by a collective 0.4 percent this year. And unemployment across the eurozone is expected to hit an average of 12.2 percent. In Greece and Spain, it's forecast to reach 27 percent.

Both Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke and European Central Bank President Mario Draghi have suggested that governments need to focus on stimulating growth and not just on spending cuts and deficit reduction.

In April, more Americans said they had part-time jobs even though they wanted full-time work. That figure rose 278,000 to 7.9 million, reversing a steep drop the previous month.

Some economists worry that restaurants, retail chains and other companies are hiring more part-time workers in preparation for the implementation of health care reform. Companies with more than 50 full-time employees in 2013 will be required to provide health insurance to their full-time staff next year.

The revisions to the March and February figures were unusually large. Retailers, restaurants and hotels added 48,000 more jobs in February than previously reported. They accounted for three-quarters of that month's revision.

The government revises each month's job totals twice in the following two months. The revisions occur because many companies in the survey submit their responses late.

The average workweek for private-sector employees declined 0.2 hour to 34.4 hours, but average hourly earnings rose 4 cents to $23.87. In the past year, wages have risen faster than inflation.

The number of people who have been unemployed for more than six months dropped 258,000 to 4.4 million. Over the past year, the number of long-term unemployed has declined by 687,000.

A fire overnight at the Labor Department's headquarters shut down the building for most employees. Members of the news media were allowed in for the release of the jobs report.
DHAKA, Bangladesh (AP) — Bangladesh's finance minister downplayed the impact of last week's factory-building collapse on his country's garment industry, saying he didn't think it was "really serious" Friday, hours after the 500th body was pulled from the debris.

Finance Minister Abul Maal Abdul Muhith spoke as the government cracked down on those it blamed for the disaster in the Dhaka suburb of Savar. It suspended Savar's mayor and arrested an engineer who had called for the building's evacuation last week, but was also accused of helping the owner add three illegal floors to the eight-story structure. The building owner was arrested earlier.

The government appears to be attempting to fend off accusations that it is in part to blame for the tragedy because of weak oversight of the building's construction.

During a visit to the Indian capital New Delhi, Muhith said the disaster would not harm Bangladesh's garment industry, which is by far the country's biggest source of export income.

"The present difficulties ... well, I don't think it is really serious — it's an accident," he said. "And the steps that we have taken in order to make sure that it doesn't happen, they are quite elaborate and I believe that it will be appreciated by all."

When asked if he was worried that foreign retailers might pull orders from his country, Muhith said he wasn't: "These are individual cases of ... accidents. It happens everywhere."

The April 24 collapse is likely the deadliest garment-factory accident in world history. It surpassed both long-ago disasters such as New York's Triangle Shirtwaist factory fire, which killed 146 workers in 1911, and more recent tragedies such as a 2012 fire that killed about 260 people in Pakistan and one in Bangladesh that same year that killed 112.

At the site of the collapse, the official death toll reached 501 Friday and was expected to climb. Workers carefully used cranes to remove the concrete rubble and continue the slow task of recovering bodies. The official number of missing has been 149 since Wednesday, though unofficial estimates are higher.

"We are still proceeding cautiously so that we get the bodies intact," said Maj. Gen. Chowdhury Hassan Suhwardy, the commander of the area's army garrison supervising the rescue operation.

A government investigator said Friday that substandard building materials, combined with the vibration of heavy machines used by the five garment factories inside the Rana Plaza building, led to the horrific collapse.

Mainuddin Khandkar, the head of a government committee investigating the disaster, said substandard rods, cement, bricks and other weak materials were used in the construction of the Rana Plaza building, which was not properly fortified to house the garment factories' equipment.

About 15 minutes before the collapse, the building was hit by a power blackout, so its heavy generators were turned on, shaking the weakened structure, Khandkar said.

"The vibration created by machines and generators operating in the five garment factories contributed first to the cracks and then the collapse," he said, adding that a final report would be soon submitted to the government.

Police official Ohiduzzaman said Friday that engineer Abdur Razzak Khan was arrested a day earlier on a charge of negligence. He said Khan worked as a consultant to Rana Plaza owner Mohammed Sohel Rana when the illegal three-floor addition was made to the building.

Rana called Khan to inspect the building after it developed cracks on April 23, local media reported. That night Khan appeared on a private television station saying that after his inspection he told Rana to evacuate the building because it was not safe.

Khan, a former engineer at Jahangirnagar University near Savar, said he told government engineers the building needed to be examined further.

Police ordered the building evacuated, but witnesses say Rana told people gathered outside the next morning that the building was safe and that garment factory managers told their workers to go inside. It collapsed hours later.

Authorities also suspended the mayor of Savar, Mohammad Refatullah, for alleged negligence, said Abu Alam, a top official of the local government ministry.

Alam said an official investigation has found that the mayor ignored rules in approving the design and layout of the doomed building. The mayor is from the opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party, which has criticized his suspension as politically motivated.

The government also effectively suspended Kabir Hossain Sardar, the top government administrator at Savar, following reports that he declared the building safe after inspecting the cracks a day before the collapse. Sardar had close links with Rana. Alam said the government was taking action against everyone involved with Rana and his building.

Rana himself was arrested earlier and is expected to be charged with negligence, illegal construction and forcing workers to join work, crimes punishable by a maximum of seven years in jail. Authorities have not said if more serious crimes will be added.

The Bangladesh High Court has ordered the government to confiscate Rana's property and freeze the assets of the owners of the factories in Rana Plaza so the money can be used to pay the salaries of their workers.

Among the garment makers in the building were Phantom Apparels, Phantom Tac, Ether Tex, New Wave Style and New Wave Bottoms.

___ AP Videojournalist Archana Thiyagarajan in New Delhi contributed to this report.

Latest News

  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • 4
  • 5
  • 6
  • 7
  • 8
Prev Next
Ill. General Assembly overrides `Smart Grid' veto

Ill. General Assembly overrides `Smart Grid' veto

   SPRINGFIELD, Ill. (AP) - Illinois lawmakers have overridden Gov. Pat Quinn's veto of legislation that addresses so-called Smart Grid technology.    The Illinois House voted Wed...

3rd grader who loved to sing among tornado victims

3rd grader who loved to sing among tornado victims

   MOORE, Okla. (AP) — Nicknamed "The Wall," 8-year-old Kyle Davis loved soccer and going to Monster Truck exhibitions at the fairgrounds with his grandfather. JaNae Hornsby, 9, lo...

Hillary Clinton accepts humanitarian award in NYC

Hillary Clinton accepts humanitarian award in NYC

   NEW YORK (AP) — Former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton touted the efforts of a group combatting malnutrition and blindness during an awards speech in New York City.  ...

Mayor Slay calls for donations to Moore, Oklahoma

Mayor Slay calls for donations to Moore, Oklahoma

  City leaders were together to announce the start of a drive to collect donations headed to Moore, Oklahoma.  The campaign started out on Twitter with the hashtag #STL4OKC. The ...

Friends and family of victim call for investigation int…

Dozens of protesters demonstrated outside St. Louis city police headquarters Wednesday, determined to continue pressuring for an investigation into the shooting death of a St. Loui...

Larry Conners no longer with KMOV

Larry Conners no longer with KMOV

Long-time KMOV reporter and anchor Larry Conners is no longer with the station.  KMOV President Mark Pimentel issued the following statement: "We regret to announce that Larry Co...

Roads closed in advance of Senior PGA Championship

Roads closed in advance of Senior PGA Championship

Some roads are already closed in Town & Country as Bellerieve Country Club as preparations continue for the Senior PGA Championship. From 6AM until 8PM through Sunday, Ladue R...

Man runs from traffic stop, into police headquarters

Man runs from traffic stop, into police headquarters

A St. Louis man redefined the phrase, out of the frying pan and into the fire. Clayton police were conducting a traffic stop when the suspect jumped out of his car and started run...

© 2013 KTRS All Rights Reserved

St Louis Web Design