ST. LOUIS_The St. Louis Blues fell behind 3-2 in their best-of-seven series with Dallas with a 2-1 loss in Game 5 that saw at times brought roars from the crowd at Enterprise Center and at times brought boos.
Game 6 is Sunday in Dallas. Game 7, if necessary, will be at Enterprise Center at 7 p.m. on Tuesday.
The Blues left the ice after the second period to boos after a poorly played finish to the period and more problems for their ineffective power play. Midway through the third period, the crowd rallied to their side when a bungled clearance attempt by Dallas goalie Ben Bishop under pressure by Robert Thomas led to Jaden Schwartz scoring his seventh goal of the postseason when Bishop played the puck right to him. That was with 11:34 to go in the third and suddenly, things were looking up for the Blues.
They were looking up even more so when Jamie Benn was called for hooking, giving the Blues a power play, but the Blues couldn't score, dropping them to 0-4 for the game with a man advantage.
The Blues had a chance to tie it with 4:15 to play when Oskar Sundqvist tried to get around the prone Bishop, but he couldn't get it around him. They couldn't get goalie Jordan Binnington off the ice until about a minute to go and despite some pressure couldn't tie the game.
The Blues fell behind 2-0 on a goal by Esa Lindell 6:13 into the period. Alexander Radulov brought the puck into the zone, left it for Lindell, who shot with his backhand and had the puck carom in off the leg of Jay Bouwmeester.
Midway through the second, it looked to many like the Blues had cut the deficit in half. Bishop had lost his stick and the Blues had extended zone time. David Perron took a shot that looked to many as though it had gone in and quickly come out. The horn sounded, the goal light didn't go on, the refs didn't signal goal and no one was quite sure what was happening. After play was finally stopped, a reviews clearly showed that the puck had hit the post and it was no goal.
The Blues had several other chances but couldn't score, despite plenty of zone time, and finished the period outshooting Dallas 24-22. The Blues were outhitting Dallas 24-11.
Jason Spezza scored 2:42 into the first period. After Binnington made a save on Mattias Janmark, the Stars worked the puck around, with Tyler Seguin having the puck low and feeding a late arriving (and wide open) Spezza for a goal, with Binnington's view possibly being obscured by Pat Maroon passing in front of him.
The Blues had plenty of scoring chances, and outshot the Stars 13-11 in the period. Bouwmeester had a shot that Bishop blocked. The puck got past him but the Blues couldn't get to the rebound. Thomas had a chance in front but couldn't get enough on a bouncing puck.
The hitting began 10 seconds in, when Brayden Schenn hit John Klingberg hard into the boards, the first of five hits for Schenn in the period. With 3:07 to go in the period, Bishop made a save and the puck, unknown to him, ended up under one of his skates. The Blues crashed in on it, trying to knock it loose, but couldn't, and soon bodies from both teams were crashing in on goal and tempers were flaring, with Joel Edmundson, put into the game with the instructions to be more physical, having to be pulled away from the pile. No penalties were assessed on the play.
That incident came not long after Blake Comeau through out his hip to knock down Tyler Bozak in front of the Blues goal, with no penalty being called, much to the consternation of the Enterprise Center crowd. The Blues outhit Dallas 14-7 in the period.
