NEWARK, N.J. – Perhaps the Blues picked up a postcard or a souvenir. Maybe took a tour to the Statue of Liberty, got a nice dinner or two.
Because for the longest time, that looked like all they were going to come home with after a week in the New York metro area.
After being unable to hold a 3-2 lead in the third period Wednesday, they lost 5-3 to the New York Rangers.
They slept through most of a 2-1 loss Saturday afternoon to the New York Islanders.
And down 2-0 entering the third period Sunday in New Jersey, they were in the midst of another sleepwalking – make that sleepskating – through another afternoon contest.
The Blues awoke with two goals early in the third to tie the game and send it into overtime. But veteran Dougie Hamilton lifted a shot past Ville Husso to give New Jersey a 3-2 win just 72 seconds into OT.
After going 0-2-1 in the greater Big Apple, the Blues limp back to St. Louis at 32-16-7. Lowly New Jersey (20-31-5) won both games in the season series.
Another afternoon game, another slow start for the Blues. Over the first 6 ½ minutes, the Blues were outshot 9-1 and committed a penalty against the Metropolitan Division’s last-place team and the league’s 28th-ranked defense.
For the 14th time this season, and the third game in a row, the Blue were facing a goalie for the first time in Nico Daws. It was just the ninth NHL game for Daws, 21, but the Blues didn’t really test him early.
That’s because almost all the action was at the other end. New Jersey’s group of young skaters had the jump on the Blues. All that zone time paid off midway through the period when defenseman Ty Smith skated down the slot undefended and popped a shot past Husso for a 1-0 Devils mark at the 9:47 mark.
It was only the fourth NHL goal for Smith, 21, a first–round draft pick in 2018, and his second of the season. New Jersey nearly had a 2-0 lead late in the period, but Pavel Dacha hit the post with 2:55 left.
The Blues came within a split-second of tying the game but after a review, it was determined that Ian Barbashev’s backhander crossed the goal line too late before the period ended. So it remained 1-0 New Jersey after one.
Robert Bortuzzo, who missed a good chunk of the opening period after appearing to take a puck to the face, returned for the second period. The Blues’ game did not appear, however. It was more of the same.
A Mikkola penalty in the first four minutes of the period. A New Jersey goal midway through the period, and nothing going for the Blues’ offense.
Only this time, the Blues didn’t pick up the pace later in the period as they had in the first. They never picked up anything, getting only one shot on goal the entire second. And that didn’t come until just 1:53 remained, on a slapshot from 50 feet by Colton Parayko.
For the third game in a row here in the New York City area, the Blues fell behind 2-0. This time when another one of the Devils’ youngsters, 20-year-old Dawson Mercer beat Husso backdoor at the 9:26 mark of the second. He was a first-round pick, No. 18 overall, in the 2020 draft.
All things considered, it looked pretty hopeless for St. Louis. But then Torey Krug, taking a cross-ice pass from Vladimir Tarasenko, signaled a wake-up call. Krug had gone pointless in his last eight games, and had been without a goal since Jan. 7 against Washington.
But he zipped his seventh goal of the season past Daws to make it a 2-1 game just 2:08 into the third. Next, Jordan Kyrou came knocking through the backdoor. Taking a cross-ice pass from Brayden Schenn, Kyrou tied it at 2-all at the 5:44 mark of the third with his team-leading 22nd goal of the season.
