Photo by: (AP Photo/Matt Slocum)
Despite holding a 3-2 lead heading into the final period against the Philadelphia Flyers, the Blues amassed just five shots in the final 20 minutes of play and allowed two goals to lose 4-3.
Jake Allen stopped 27 of 31 shots while Steve Mason allowed just three goals on 29 shots for the win.
For the Blues, Robby Fabbri, Magnus Paajarvi and Kevin Shattenkirk each scored.
Following the loss, St. Louis’s three-game winning streak ends as the Blues are tied for second with the Chicago Blackhawks in the Central Division with a record of 20-11-4 for 44 points.
In the first period, St. Louis got out in front early.
Dmitij Jaskin muscled Claude Giroux off the puck before sending it to Fabbri in the middle of the zone. Fabbri moved past one defended and returned the pass off-balance. Jaskin took a shot that Mason turned aside to the end boards. Jaskin kept with the play and returned the pass to Fabbri in front for the goal to make it 1-0 with 11:44 left in the first period.
St. Louis wasted little time adding to its lead with another tally 6:35 later on the power play.
The Blues set the play up with Shattenkirk on top sending pass to Vladamir Tarasenko. Matt Read challenged Tarasenko, but he battled off Read to send a cross-ice pass to Shattenkirk as he switched places with Alexander Steen. Shattenkirk ripped a slap shot off the cross-bar for the goal.
The Blues finished one for two on the power play and are now sixth in the league on the man advantage at 21.4 percent.
The goals kept coming for St. Louis as Paajarvi added his second of the year. A turnover in th neutral zone sent Paajarvi in all alone as he beat Mason low to the glove side making it 3-0 with 10:41 left in the game.
From that point on, it was all Philadelphia.
On the power play for St. Louis, Pierre-Edouard Bellemare intercepted Shattenkirk’s pass and went in on a break away. He deked, but Allen made the sprawling left-pad save, but Chris VandeVelde was there to stuff home the rebound. The goal cut the deficit to two with under 10 minutes left in the second period.
The Flyers kept the pressure coming on a two-on-one with Wayne Simmons and Jakub Voracek. Simmons sent it to Voracek who slid it right back as Simmons beat Allen high to the glove side for the goal.
Simmons kept things going in the third period on the power play despite the Blues leading the league in penalty kill efficiency.
The Voracek and Simmons connection continued as Voracek took a slap shot on net. Simmons was there in front of Allen to deflect home the goal to tie the game at three just 0:51 into the period.
After scoring three unanswered, the Flyers finished the job with a fourth to earn the win.
VandeVelde turned off the boards to find Ryan White who held the puck with patience. Then White dropped the pass to Evgeny Medvedev who ripped a shot into the net.
The Blues will have three days of rest before taking on the red-hot Boston Bruins and their league-leading power play. The game is set to start from the TD Garden Tuesday, Dec. 22.
