Bishop, Schwarz combine for NHL shutout in St. Louis

(AP) – Ben Bishop was having the time of his life for his hometown St. Louis Blues before he felt something strange in the third period.

The St. Louis native made 12 saves before leaving with an undisclosed lower-body injury in the Blues’ 4-0 victory over the Florida Panthers Saturday night.

Bishop left the game with 15:27 to play.

"I was going to make one of the saves and something (wasn’t right) in my lower body," Bishop said. "It’s sad. I felt really good. It’s unfortunate."

The former Maine star was replaced by Marek Schwarz, recalled Saturday from Peoria of the AHL after starter Manny Legace strained a hip flexor against Los Angeles on Friday night, and regular backup Chris Mason had an appendectomy last week. Schwarz made five saves to close out the shutout.

Former AHL All-Star Brad Boyes scored two goals, Paul Kariya had a goal and an assist, Keith Tkachuk also scored and added an assist and Andy McDonald collected three assists to help the Blues snap a two-game losing streak and end Florida’s two-game winning streak.

"Right off the bat, we got going," said Boyes, who scored his sixth and seventh goals of the season. "I think the forecheck worked out well, we didn’t turn pucks over, shot the puck, the power play got us going good. I think every part of our game was much better than it was last night."

Boyes scored the Blues’ first power play goal, his sixth of the season, on a nifty backhand through-the-legs pass from Tkachuk at 15:25 of the opening period.

Bishop, a 21-year-old rookie, is 2-2-0 in four AHL appearances with Peoria this season, posting a 2.44 goals-against average and a .907 save percentage. Schwarz, an AHL All-Star in 2007, was a first-round draft choice by the Blues in 2004.