– Photo by Len Redkoles/NHLI via Getty Images
After a four-day break following a disappointing loss to the Vancouver, the Blues lost to the Philadelphia Flyers 3-1.
With the loss, the Blues fall to 40-19-5 with 85 points. St. Louis is now four points behind the Nashville Predators and four points ahead of the Chicago Blackhawks in the Central Division.
Jaden Schwartz’s 21st goal of the season was not enough to hold off the Flyers’ attack that scored three goals over nine minutes in the third period.
In net, Brian Elliott got the nod despite pulling himself in the third period sparking a heated conversation with Head Coach Ken Hitchcock against Vancouver. Elliott stopped 28 out of 30 shots faced.
In the first period, Vladamir Tarasenko disrupted Mark Streit’s pass in the neutral zone, and Tarasenko gained control of the puck headed into the attacking zone. Tarasenko delayed just inside the blue line before sending a pass to the other side of the zone to Jaden Schwartz who ringed a shot off of the post to make it 1-0 St. Louis with 7:08 remaining in the period.
But for the second straight game, the Blues lost after scoring the first goal of the game.
Elliott stood tall through two periods of play stopping all 22 shots faced in the opening 40 minutes of the game including big opportunities by Sean Couturier and Michael Del Zotto.
But in the third period, the Blues failed to keep their lead. Prior to the game, St. Louis was just 13th in the NHL while leading after two periods of play with 86.2 percent.
Just under ten minutes into the third period, David Backes and Alex Pietrangelo battled with Matt Read and Couturier in the corner. The Flyers won the puck battle and sent it back to the point where Del Zotto fired a shot from the point, off of the far post to tie the game at one.
Philadelphia wasted little time before it earned its first lead of the game minutes later.
Again it was Read with the puck in the attacking zone before delaying to find Streit entering the zone off a line change. Streit faked a slap shot getting Backes to stop moving his feet before Streit side-stepped Backes. Streit sent a hard pass to Wayne Simmons who scored his team-leading 26th goal of the season and fifth game-winning goal of the season.
Michael Raffi added an empty-net goal late in the final period to seal the game for Philadelphia.
St. Louis will look to get back on track as it heads back to Canada for its final matchup of this five-game road series. The Blues take on the Toronto Maple Leafs Saturday March 7 at 6 p.m. CT.
