Jordan Binnington's troubles against the Colorado Avalanche continued Saturday in Denver. After allowing four goals on 11 shots, he was pulled for the second time in 16 days at Pepsi Center.
In a 7-3 loss in Colorado on Jan. 2, Binnington was pulled with 5:41 left to play after allowing all seven goals. Saturday in Denver, he gave way to Jake Allen again after Andre Burakovsky's goal with 3:12 left in the second period made it 4-2 Colorado.
The Blues made a game of it in the third period. On his 30th birthday, Alex Pietrangelo's 13th goal of the season made it a 4-3 game with 13:37 remaining. The Blues pressured right down to the closing seconds before Gabriel Landeskog's empty-net goal with two seconds remaining gave Colorado a 5-3 victory.
"They capitalized on some plays," Craig Berube said. "I thought we took too many penalties against these guys, 'cause last time we did, too. But I liked our game. I thought our guys competed hard. We played hard. It was a playoff-style game. We just came up short."
The Blues gave up three power-play goals in the Jan. 2 contest; they killed off all four Colorado power plays on Saturday.
So the Blues enter the All-Star/bye break with a 30-11-8 record, good for 68 points. They do not play again until Jan. 27 in Vancouver, the start of a four-game swing through western Canada.
"Obviously, we've come in here twice and lost the last two times," Pietrangelo said. "So we're frustrated, but these are the times when you look at the picture. And big picture is we've put ourselves in a good spot for the second half of the season.
"You gotta be proud of where we are. Everyone's gonna agree on that. "I'll wake up tomorrow, look at the standings, we're still in a good spot."
They still lead Colorado (27-15-6) by eight points in the Central Division, with the Avalanche having a game in hand.
Binnington _ the Blues' All-Star goalie _ has allowed 11 goals in less than five periods of play against Colorado in the last two games between the Central
"Not everybody's perfect every night," Berube said.
"I've got to be there to make some big saves for the boys when we needed it," Binnington said. "Unfortunately, it's a tough way to go into the break for me, but it is what it is."
Oskar Sundqvist's 11th goal of season, off a spinning backhand assist from Ryan O'Reilly, gave the Blues a 2-1 lead just 66 seconds into the second period.
But then it was all Colorado. Tyson Jost tied it 2-2 on a rebound of a Burakovsky shot after Vince Dunn lost the puck at the St. Louis blue line.
Rookie defenseman Cale Makar then gave Colorado the lead on a shot from the point through traffic. Burakovsky followed with his goal, beating Binnington near side, giving the Avalanche two goals in 22 seconds and that 4-2 lead.
David Perron's 21st goal of the season, and his ninth power-play goal of the campaign, allowed the Blues to end the first period tied 1-1. It gave the Blues at least one power-play goal in 12 of their last 15 games.
With Nazem Kadri off for hooking Jaden Schwartz, Perron's goal came with just 1:56 left in the opening period. Colorado's Nathan MacKinnon opened the scoring with his 28th goal of the season just 3:41 into the game.
Blues forward Mackenzie MacEachern left the game with what the team said was an upper-body injury and did not return.
The Blues announced after the game that they have sent down defenseman Niko Mikkola to San Antonio.
