Photo by: Jamie Sabau/National Hockey League/Getty Images
The night went from bad to worse as the St. Louis Blues lost to the Columbus Blue Jackets 3-1, and Jori Lehtera went to the hospital in the first period.
Brandon Saad’s stick hit Lehtera up by his neck, but Lehtera was able to leave the ice under his own power just over eight minutes into the game.
In the loss, Brian Elliott stopped 35 shots, but it was not enough to overcome his counterpart, Sergei Bobrovsky, who stopped 19 out of 20 shots faced.
After the loss, the Blues fall to 12-6-1 with losses in three of their past four. Their 25 points have St. Louis, currently, second in the Central Division, five points behind Dallas.
Despite the loss, St. Louis got out to the early lead with its only goal of the game.
Good work by Dmitrij Jaskin and Magnus Paajarvi-Svensson down low on the fore check allowed Paajarvi to come away with the puck by the right dot in the attacking end. Paajarvi passed to the point where Kevin Shattenkirk teed up a slap shot past Bobrovsky for the goal. The tally put the Blues out in front 1-0 with 12:24 remaining in the first period.
But, Columbus answered back later in the first period.
A quick break out by the Blue Jackets led to a three-on-one opportunity. Cody Goloubef carried the puck from his end all the way to the Blues’ defensive zone. He looked off the lone defense, Joel Edmundson, quickly before snapping a shot on net. The shot trickled past the glove of Elliott to tie the game at one with under four minutes remaining in the period.
In the second period, Columbus kept up the momentum.
Cam Atkinson entered the offensive zone and curled to the boards before sending a pass to Ryan Murray on the left-hand boards. Murray saw Saad setting up and sent a perfect, cross-ice pass to Saad by the right-hand dot. Saad collected the pass on his forehand, spun and sent a back-hand shot over the left shoulder and glove of Elliott for the goal. The score marks Saad’s eighth of the season and gave the Blue Jackets a 2-1 lead with 15:50 left in the second period.
Columbus added an empty-net goal in the third period to ensure the victory. The win marks the seventh this season for Columbus after the team started 0-8-0.
St. Louis will look to get back on track against the Buffalo Sabres Thursday, Nov. 19. Puck drop from the Scottrade Center is set for 7 p.m.
