ST. LOUIS _ For the third time this season, the Blues have failed to hold onto a third period lead. In a pair of overtime losses to Chicago, the Blues squandered 4-3 and 3-2 leads in the third.
Sunday at home against an injury-depleted Anaheim team, the Blues couldn't hold a 2-1 third period advantage in what became a 3-2 loss at Enterprise Center. The Blues fell to 1-2-2 on the season, with four of those five games at home. Anaheim moved to 4-1-1.
Anaheim tied the game at 2 with 12:44 left in the third period when Ben Street deflected in a shot by Josh Manson. It became 3-2 with just 5:16 to play when Andrew Cogliano, off a sharp centering pass from Ryan Kesler, sent a rebound of his own shot through the legs of Chad Johnson for a power play goal.
The Blues went with the unusual lineup of 11 forwards seven defensemen, using a rotating cast of skaters to fill out a fourth line of Ivan Barbashev and Robert Thomas. Turns out they needed the extra defenseman because Robert Bortuzzo left in the second period with a lower-body injury and did not return.
Things weren't trending well for St. Louis at the start of the second period. Anaheim outshot St. Louis 12-1 at one point in the period although the Ducks couldn't add to their 1-0 first period lead. But momentum started to shift the Blues' way after a high-sticking penalty against the Ducks' Marcus Pettersson.
The Blue didn't score on that power play, but they started to generate offensive zone time and finally got on the scoreboard when Alexander Steen tipped in a shot taken by Joel Edmundson from just inside the Blue line with 8:11 to play in the second period.
It became 2-1 Blues when Tyler Bozak scored his first St. Louis goal. The free-agent pickup from Toronto got the last whack at the puck during a net-front scrum involving several Blues in front of Ducks goalie Ryan Miller. It was a power play goal, the Blues' seventh in their last four games.
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