ST. LOUIS — A victory over Calgary on Thursday would have put the Blues in a virtual tie with the Flames and Edmonton for a wild-card spot. All three teams would’ve had 47 points in 43 games, with Calgary and the Oilers claiming the two wild-card spots in the Western Conference — at least for now — by virtue of the “wins in regulation” tie-breaker.
But the Blues took a step back in their playoff pursuit with a 4-1 loss to the Flames at Enterprise Center. So they remain on the outside looking in, falling to 21-19-3 for the season and 4-2-0 in the New Year — which also coincides with the injuries to Ryan O’Reilly and Vladimir Tarasenko.
Calgary snapped a four-game winless streak against the Blues, and at 20-14-9 for 49 points, has the top wild-card spot in the West.
Coach Craig Berube hasn’t done much in-game line blending lately, but with the Blues struggling to score he mixed things up as the game progressed. An active Josh Leivo, back in the lineup after two games as a healthy scratch, was moved up to the Brayden Schenn line, with Ivan Barbashev dropping down to the Noel Acciari’s third line.
Trailing 1-0, the Blues finally broke through early in the third period. With Acciari skating down into the slot, the veteran center loaded up for a shot, but fanned on it. The loose puck squirted over in the direction of Jake Neighbours and he pounced on it and then scored his second goal of the season and first since opening day just 20 seconds into the period.
Since returning to the Blues at the start of the New Year, Neighbours has had several chances since then and was finally rewarded.
The Blues seemingly had the momentum, and the crowd was into it. But then the hockey gods smiled on Calgary. Robert Thomas attempted to clear the puck in his own zone, but it appeared to deflect off a Calgary player to Dillon Dube in the slot, who scored to make it a 2-1 Calgary lead with 9:10 left.
The Flames then got a key insurance goal when a Justin Faulk turnover behind the St. Louis net resulted in a goal by Blake Coleman with 3:56 left. An empty-netter by Dube 35 seconds later made it 4-1 and made it 20 games this season in which the Blues have allowed at least three goals in one period.
Scoreless start
The Blues had two first-period power plays, but failed to score a goal in the first period for the first time in nine games, dating back to a 5-4 shootout loss in Las Vegas on Dec. 23.
They had a couple of strong chances, including a breakaway attempt by Brandon Saad with 7:12 left in the period that was turned away by Dan Vladar, making his first career start against St. Louis. About 3 1/2 minutes earlier, Leivo and Nikita Alexandrov both were poking at the puck at Vladar’s feet but couldn’t get it across the line.
Power outage
The Blues had another power-play chance in the second period, but once again came away empty after Michael Stone was sent off for high-sticking Schenn with three minutes remaining in the period. As has frequently been the case, the Blues were guilty of over-passing on a couple of occasions.
Seeking to score a power-play goal for a season-best sixth consecutive games, which put the Blues at 0 for 3 on the power play for the game, with just three shots on goal to show for those six minutes.
Greiss is nice
Thanks to a shutout performance Sunday in Minnesota, Greiss didn’t have to wait 18 days between starts. This time it was only three days, with Greiss making only his third start this season that was not in a back-to-back situation.
But one thing didn’t change. Once again, Greiss faced a heavy volume of rubber. In his 10 previous starts, he faced an average of 37.5 shots per game. He was ahead of that pace early on Thursday, facing 16 shots in the opening period. One of his best saves came point blank from defenseman Noah Hanifin from the left circle midway through the first.
Greiss’ shutout streak ended at 1 hour, 55 minutes, 43 seconds late in the second period, when Walker Duehr beat Greiss stickside to cap off a 3-on-1 Flames rush. The sequence began with a failed 3-on-2 rush by the Blues, with two forwards and defenseman Calle Rosen caught in deep.
It was the first NHL goal for Duehr, a native of Sioux Falls, S.D., playing in just his third NHL game at age 25. He made his season debut here on Tuesday.
Kadri redux
Yes, the Blues booed Nazem Kadri basically every time he had the puck. Overall, the loudest cheers came when he was penalized for hooking Faulk just 4:14 into the game. But overall, they weren’t booing with as much gusto as they did when the teams played here Tuesday.
