TAMPA, Fla. _ The Tampa Bay Lightning entered Thursday's game against the Blues depleted.
Bolts coach Jon Cooper, whose club had won just three of its last 12 games, told reporters in the morning that he had more players leaving the lineup than returning. The list included Steven Stamkos, Nikita Kucherov, Ryan Callahan and Ben Bishop.
Tampa Bay was missing four of its top nine forwards and thus was forced to start 11 forwards and seven defensemen. So it seemed like the correct script when the Blues open a two-goal lead in the first period. But then the depleted Lightning deleted that deficit, tying the score in the second period, and picking up the only goal of the third period for a 5-2 victory at Amalie Arena.
The Blues, following their overtime win over Dallas to open the trip, thus missed their chance to win consecutive games on the road for the first time this season. They dropped to 5-10-1 on the road before the end of December, after not losing their 10th road game in regulation last season until February.
It marked the second time in the Blues' last three road games they have blown a multi-goal lead, following a 6-3 defeat in Nashville when they led 3-0 at one point.
The Blues will have plenty of time to think about this one, heading separate ways after the game for what will be a five-day Christmas break. The club doesn't play again hosting Philadelphia Wednesday at Scottrade Center.
Tampa got the game-winner Thursday from Alex Killorn just 5:25 into the third period. The Blues' Robby Fabbri couldn't contain the Lightning's Anton Stralman in the corner, allowing Stralman to feed the puck to Killorn at the point. He had all day to pick a shot, and with Dmitrij Jaskin and Kyle Brodziak backing off and attempting to block the shot, goalie Jake Allen didn't appear to see hit the back of the net.
The Lightning added another from Jonathan Drouin with 1:40 left in regulation, a goal that left Allen shaken up. He left the game and was replaced by Carter Hutton, who then left the net for an extra attacker. Drouin followed with his second goal of the game, scoring into an empty-net, for the fifth unanswered goal on 32 shots.
The Blues scored two goals on their first eight shots Thursday, but didn't find the back of the net again on their final 15, finishing the game with 23.
The Blues played their first game of the season without Paul Stastny, who was sidelined with an upper-body injury. They adjusted by reuniting the STL line with Jaden Schwartz, Jori Lehtera and Vladimir Tarasenko but keeping intact the line Alexander Steen, Patrik Berglund and David Perron.
It was Perron who had the overtime game-winner Tuesday in Dallas and he got the scoring started Thursday in Tampa.
Perron picked the pocket of Lightning forward Brayden Point right in front of the Bolts' net. He then stickhandled his way around goalie Andrei Vasilevskiy, using a backhander to hand the Blues a 1-0 lead with 5:49 left in the first period.
While there was some history with the Blues' top-six lines, they re-tooled their bottom-six Thursday, promoting Brodziak to the third line with Fabbri and Jaskin. They slipped newcomer Wade Megan between Scottie Upshall and Ryan Reaves.
Megan took his first shift three minutes into the game and took his first shot of the game with 5:17 left in the period. It went in for his goal in the NHL, a successful shot after Vasilevskiy stopped the original attempt from Reaves. The goal came 32 seconds after Perron's, opening a 2-0 advantage.
The Blues held a two-goal lead despite allowing Tampa 14 first-period shots on goal. Allen had a couple of big saves, turning away defenseman Nikita Nesterov and forward Erik Condra.
But the shot total continued a recent trend that caught up to the Blues in the second period. Opponents had 35-plus shots in four of the last five games, averaging 34.2 during that stretch.
Tampa had nine in the second period for a two-period total of 21 and the Lightning scored on two of them. Brian Boyle put the club on the board with a power-play goal midway through the period and Michal Bournival tied the score with 2:33 remaining.
Both goals came on deflections at the net, with Boyle tipping a point shot from defenesman Viktor Hedman and Bournival doing the same on a shot by Jason Garrison.
That sent the clubs in the second intermission square at 2-2. But then Tampa Bay notched three more in the third period, sending the Blues home for the holidays.
