Dave Luecking
© St. Louis Post-Dispatch
October 31, 1999

Tyson Nash expanded his repertoire in the Blues' 5-4 overtime victory over Detroit on Saturday night at Kiel Center.

The rookie who specializes in annoying the opposition and drawing penalties scored his first goal and got into his first fight.

After the game, it was hard to tell which one he valued more.

* The Goal: Nash took a pass from Jamal Mayers on left wing, then fired a slapshot that trickled in off Ken Wregget's glove at 3:17 of the first period.

"Jamal Mayers made it all happen," Nash said. "He's a pretty fast guy and took the puck to the middle. The defenseman went to him, and Jamal dished off to me. I didn't have much to do with it. I put it on the net and it slipped under his arm or something.

"I'll take it. I was starting to wonder when it was going to come. It's nice to get it against these guys."

* The Fight: After Chris Chelios upended Mayers and sent him into the boards on a rush, Nash charged Chelios from behind, dumped him over Mayers, got crosschecked by Slava Kozlov and came up swinging. Nash ripped off Chelios helmet, threw a few good punches and took a good right to the chin.

"That was pretty exciting," said Nash, who showed he can back up his annoying physical play with his fists. "Now, I can tell my buddies I f ought Chris Chelios. That's pretty big and exciting."

Nash also was on the receiving end of a body slam by Detroit's Martin Lapointe in the first period. He seemed to like that, too.

"That was WWF style," Nash said. "He did a pretty good job, but the ref wasn't going to have any part of it. Maybe next time."

* After sitting out against New Jersey on Wednesday, Todd Reirden was back in the lineup as Chris Pronger's partner on defense and got the second assist on Pavol Demitra's overtime winner.

The assist redeemed Reirden for inadvertently deflecting Steve Yzerman's tying goal past Roman Turek at 13:37 of the third period.

"I thought Reirden had a great game," Blues coach Joel Quenneville said. "That pairing was very noticeable with their size and their presence. They controlled the puck and made a lot of direct plays. Chris and Todd were real effective together."