BUFFALO _ It was the end of line for several Blues' streaks on Saturday afternoon. Their penalty kill perfection under new coach Mike Yeo ended at 23 straight. Also done was their six-game overall win streak and their five-game road win streak. And they gave up a goal when down two players for the first time this season.
It was bound to happen, and considering the Blues were playing their third game in less than 72 hours, it was no big surprise. The Blues fell to Buffalo, 3-2, at KeyBank Center on Saturday afternoon and now come home for one last game before five well-earned days off.
The Blues were in the game right to the very finish. Scottie Upshall scored the team's first short-handed goal of the season with 4:57 to play, and then the Blues pulled goalie Jake Allen and had a two-man advantage for the final 45 seconds or so and had some chances but couldn't get the puck in.
"The game was still there for us, right to the end we had a chance," Yeo said. "We kept ourselves in it. You get 39 shots and the majority of them are five-on-five, there are a lot of things that were good. We obviously put ourselves in the box too much tonight."
The Blues' job was made tougher by their taking six penalties against the league's best power-play unit ("I thought there were a couple we didn't love," Yeo said, "but for the first time in a little while I thought we were reaching a lot more as opposed to moving our feet"), but they gave up just one goal, and that was on a five-on-three. The Blues outshot Buffalo 39-28 but many of the shots were from the outside and the Blues couldn't get to some tantalizing rebounds in the crease.
"We put 40 shots on them," defenseman Joel Edmundson said. "I thought we played a good game. It's just the bounces went their way and they had a couple more power plays and they took advantage of that. It was fun while it lasted but we have to get another streak going on Monday."
"A couple lapses for us," defenseman Colton Paryako said. "It was one of those things where we kept pushing and pushing in the third and we just couldn't get that last one. ... Obviously their third goal, the five on three, was a tough one. But I think at the end of the day we had our opportunities too on the power play. We've got to execute when we have the opportunity."
The Blues kept one streak alive, scoring first for the seventh consecutive game. Vladimir Tarasenko came on the ice on a delayed Buffalo penalty and off a sweet backhand pass from Jaden Schwartz beat Robin Lehner to the short side 91 seconds into the game.
The lead held until just past the midway point of the first period, when a nice play by Jack Eichel to bring the puck up ice led to a pass to Nicholas Baptiste, whose backhander beat Jake Allen for a goal.
With 8:02 to go in the second, the Blues fell behind for the first time since Feb. 4 when Evander Kane in front of the net redirected a shot by Zach Bogosian past Allen to make it 2-1. In the Blues' six-game win streak, they had been ahead or tied the whole time.
The Blues took two penalties in the final 2:13 of the second period that led to the third goal. First Kenny Agostino was called for crosschecking Eichel and then with 45 seconds to go in that power play, Upshall was called for hooking, giving Buffalo, which came into the game with the best power play in the league, an extended two-man advantage. With 31.3 seconds to go in the period, Ryan O'Reilly shot from the right circle and beat Allen to the far side. That was the first power-play goal the Blues had given up under Yeo and the first with a two-man disadvantage all season, ending their run at 8 minutes, 19 seconds.
"Five on four we were doing a heck of a job but you put the league's No. 1 power play on a five on three and you make things pretty tough on yourself," Yeo said. "That was a tough goal for us, putting them up a couple goals going into the third period but we kept fighting."
