ST .LOUIS — It was a familiar theme for the St. Louis Blues on Tuesday in their 4-2 loss against the Minnesota Wild at Enterprise Center.
The Blues (8-11-1), who are 1-5-1 in their past seven, are matched up against a strong opponent. They’re in the game in the third period, hanging in the balance, and for whatever reason or another, they find a way to lose.
And lose against yet another Central Division opponent (more on that later).
The return of Robert Thomas couldn’t help the Blues solve their offensive woes yet again.
Thomas returned sooner than many expected after missing the past 12 games with a fractured right ankle blocking a shot Oct. 22, and he contributed a power-play assist and played 23:07, winning 14 of 23 face-offs.
“I felt good,” Thomas said. “Timing was a little bit off, but started to feel more comfortable as the game went on.”
“I thought he played really well,” Blues coach Drew Bannister said. “Didn’t look like he’d been off for four weeks.”
Here are tonight’s takeaways:
* Mistakes magnified — Good teams pounce. Minnesota, which won here 4-1 in the home opener Oct. 15, took advantage of puck errors and never trailed.
On a goal scored by Ryan Hartman that made it 1-0 at 12:24, Marco Rossi lifted Dylan Holloway’s stick in the neutral zone; OK, guy makes a solid play there, gets it to Hartman, who got a half a step on Colton Parayko, but the shot trickled through Jordan Binnington, one in which the Blues goalie will want back:
After Scott Perunovich who hadn’t scored in his first 78 NHL games, scored his second in six games on a beautiful shot:
It tied the game 1-1 at 4:48 of the second period.
Another game lies in the balance in the third. It did against Winnipeg, it did against Montreal, it did against Philadelphia, it did against Utah, Boston, Buffalo, Carolina. All were tied, had a lead or were within one.
The Wild took a lead on Kirill Kaprizov’s go-ahead goal at 6:07 on a high slot redirection. It came after Justin Faulk, who just served a high-sticking minor, came out of the box, had a chance to clear but softly lobbed it that was picked off at the blue line by Matt Boldy:
But the Blues fought back yet again, tying it 2-2 on a Jake Neighbours power-play goal at 10:37, a power play that looked clean, looked in sync and worked well:
But yet again, a lost puck cost them another lead.
This time, it was the ‘WTF’ Line after Radek Faksa moved a puck along the wall to Alexey Toropchenko, but he lost the battle, Minnesota gained the puck, worked it to Jonas Brodin, whose shot glanced off a sliding Nathan Walker short side on Binnington with 6:16 to play:
Kaprizov, who extended his point streak to six games (six goals, six assists), put it away with an empty-netter with 1:23 to play.
“I think it’s pretty tight. I feel like that game could have gone either way,” Thomas said. “They’re a team that’s playing really well. They got a great record and they’re finding ways to win. When you’re kind of on the other side of it, it’s tough. You feel like you’re right in the game and just can’t seem to get a win. Those times don’t last forever. I think having a good mindset is so important during these times.”
* Missed opportunities — What sounds like a broke record, the Blues generated chances. They had good scoring opportunities.
Neighbours scored but missed an open short side in the second period; Buchnevich missed a close-in chance by not having his stick down on the ice; Jordan Kyrou, who seemingly had glorious chance after glorious chance every game (10 shot attempts) was stuffed in tight. Those are just a few of many.
And in the process, the Blues are 0-4-0 — all at home — against divisional foes and outscored 15-7.
“It’s frustrating. I think we’re generating, right,” Neighbours said. “The looks are there. Kind of again the story is we’re not finishing on them. That’s just the way it’s kind of going right now. We just can’t seem to finish.
“I think there’s a lot of positive things. We’re creating and playing well and we’re in games. We’ve just got to find a way to win.”
* Third periods not going well — Good teams find ways to win late, right?
Well, part of the recent troubles for the Blues is they’re getting bludgeoned in the third period.
They’ve now been outscored in six of the past seven third periods (Saturday in Boston the lone exception) and are a minus-12, outscored 15-3.
“We’ve got to find ways to win hockey games,” Bannister said. “When we’re in those positions, it’s 2-2, we tie it up on the power play. We’ve got to take momentum and push forward here. Right now, with the way bounces are going for us, we’ve got to work for those bounces to go our way.”
