Photo by: (Dilip Vishwanat/NHLI via Getty Images)
The month of December has not been kind to the St. Louis Blues as they have now lost four out of five in the month, the latest being a 4-2 defeat at the hands of the Philadelphia Flyers.
Claude Giroux and Matt Read’s second period goals helped lift the Flyers over the Blues.
Following the loss, the Blues remain second in the Central Division with a record of 16-9-4 for 36 points. St. Louis now trails the Dallas Stars for first in the division by eight points and leads the Nashville Predators by one point.
Despite the loss, the Blues got out ahead first.
Jori Lehtera won the face off in the attacking zone as Robby Fabbri took a shot on net. Dmitrij Jaskin jammed at the rebound in front as the puck squirted to the end boards. Jaskin kept with the play and fed Fabbri in front for the goal. Fabbri’s fifth goal of the year put the Blues on top 1-0 1:35 into the second period.
The Flyers answered back with a trio of second period goals.
Right off a face off in the Blues’ defensive zone, Brayden Shenn sent a pass to the front of the net that deflected off Michael Raffl for the goal.
Just three minutes later, Michael Del Zotto took a slap shot from the point. Brian Elliott made the first save, but Read scooped up the rebound, moved to his right and dove to sneak the puck just past the outstretched glove of Elliott to give Philadelphia its first lead of the game with 13:21 left in the second period.
Giroux danced his way to his 11th goal of the season later in the period as he split two St. Louis defenders before drawing Elliott to the ice and lifting into the net.
In the third, St. Louis remained down 3-1 and looked for an answer.
They got that answer on the power play as Alexander Steen ripped high on Michal Neuvirth as Neuvirth stopped the first shot. But, David Backes was there in front to put home the rebound drawing the deficit to one.
Despite quality chances in the final minute of play for the Blues, they allowed an empty-net goal to seal the loss.
The Blues will look to get back to their winning ways from the start of the season next against the Dallas Stars at the Scottrade Center. The game is set for 7 p.m. Saturday Dec. 12
