ST. LOUIS _ The Blues' win over Nashville on Sunday that had provided some separation and clarity in the Blues' race for third place in the Central Division returned to muddled status on Tuesday, but among the things the Blues know for sure and can be thankful for is that while who they might get in the playoffs isn't settled, it won't be the Winnipeg Jets.
The Blues may be the third-best team in the Central, but they're no match for fifth-place Winnipeg, which swept the season series with the Blues with a 5-2 win at Scottrade Center. The Blues could have clinched third place in the division with a win and a Nashville loss, but instead got only an overtime loss for the Predators. The Blues still control their fate in the race and need just three points in some way from their final three games, either points won by them or points not won by Nashville. The Blues also have one more game to play in Nashville and hold the tiebreaker, so as long as they match the Predators result for result the rest of the way, they'll take third and get Minnesota in the first round rather than Chicago.
The loss snapped a nine-game point streak for the Blues and was just their second loss in regulation in the past month.
The Blues went 0-4-1 against Winnipeg, salvaging only an overtime loss on Dec. 3. It's the first time the Blues have gone winless in a season series of five or more games since they went 0-7-1 against Nashville in 2005-06. Winnipeg outscored them 21-10 in those five games, scoring five goals three times. If it's any consolation, Winnipeg also went 4-1 against the Blackhawks.
The Blues hadn't allowed more than three goals in their past 17 games, and for the first time since Mike Yeo took over as coach from Ken Hitchcock, he pulled a goalie, this time taking out Jake Allen for Carter Hutton when Patrik Laine got his second goal of the night with 10:58 to go in the third period.
Allen had kept the Blues in the game in the first period, but the chances the Blues gave up were too good for the Jets.
The Blues still do have a helpful schedule to fall back on. They have a two-game trip with games against Florida and Carolina on Thursday and then close out the regular season with a game against omnipresent Colorado on Sunday at Scottrade Center.
The game started well with the Blues as they scored 35 seconds into the game when Alex Pietrangelo put back his own shot that had been blocked for his 13th goal of the season, a career high. Winnipeg was the aggressor in the period, with nine shots on goal to the Blues' four, and once again had it not been for Allen in goal, the Blues wouldn't have been leading 1-0.
The second period fell apart in the span of 62 that went from bad to worse to even more worse.
Laine started the scoring 1:47 into the period, getting position inside Petteri Lindbohm to grab a rebound in the crease, move the puck slightly to his right, and then score his 35th goal of the season.
Fourteen seconds after that, the Blues were behind. Nikolaj Ehlers got a rebound, skated around the goal and Allen couldn't get back across his goal to stop the wraparound that tied the game. It didn't take long for the Blues to fall farther behind. Defenseman Mark Stuart took a shot that the Blues' Kyle Brodziak got his stick on. But rather than stopping the puck, it caromed high on an arc over Allen and just like that, the Blues were trailing 3-1 2:49 into the second period.
The Blues cut the lead to one on a goal by Jori Lehtera, back in the lineup for the first time since March 10. He got his first goal since Feb. 16 when he finished off a feed from Ivan Barbashev, who took a outlet pass from Jay Bouwmeester. (Zach Sanford got his stick on the puck at mid-ice to get the second assist rather than Bouwmeester.)
Lehtera had missed 12 games after taking two blows to the head against Anaheim on March 10 and getting a concussion. For his return, Yeo tried to minimize the disruptions to his lineup by putting Lehtera at left wing on Barbashev's line and taking out Dmitrij Jaskin. Lehtera also was put on the Blues' first power-play unit, which has struggled mightily in recent games, but it didn't make much of a difference on the Blues' first chance with an extra man. Yeo thought that having Lehtera there would help on faceoffs, which would help with zone time, but he lost two faceoffs on that power play and it took the Blues almost a minute before they could get the puck successfully into the Jets' zone.
In the third period, Yeo juggled his lines in search of offense but didn't find any. It looked like Allen had made a great glove save on Mark Scheifele with 15:12 to go in the third to keep it a one-goal game, but a replay review showed that the force of the shot had drive Allen's glove over the goal line and the score was 4-2.
With 10:58 to go in the third, Laine got a pass in the slot and beat Allen, chasing him from the game.
