ST. LOUIS _ For goalie Jake Allen, there was progress on Tuesday night. Not so for the Blues.
In their return to the ice after the All-Star break, the Blues got a reminder of just how their season has been going, namely, every time they make a mistake, the puck ends up in the net.
The Blues gave up four goals for the ninth time in their past 14 games, losing to Winnipeg, 5-3, at Scottrade Center. Allen was hung out to dry on a couple of them and the Blues didn't make it easy on him on any of them. There was the Blues getting its defense caught up ice, there was the Blues losing a puck battle behind their goal, there was the Blues standing around while a Winnipeg circle skated in circles, there was the Blues turning the puck over in the neutral zone. Each time, a goal followed.
Allen faced just 23 shots in his first start since Jan. 19, was charged with four goals and got the same result as the Blues dropped their second straight and fifth in the past six games. They're still in a playoff spot, but that hold gets more and more precarious with each loss. And now the Blues have two good teams, Toronto and Pittsburgh coming into town, though that seems to get their attention better.
Winnipeg has certainly been a thorn for them this season. After going 15-1-3 against them in the first three seasons since the team moved back to Winnipeg, the Blues have gone 0-2-1 against them this season with two more games to go. And with this loss, Winnipeg is one point back of the Blues in the Central.
The Blues staked Allen to a lead for the first time in more than a month. Alex Pietrangelo had the puck in the right circle but didn't have a shot, so he took the puck to the goal line and passed it back out to Alexander Steen at the blue line. Steen's shot, which was probably more of a pass to Paul Stastny, instead hit the skate of Winnipeg's Josh Morrissey and bounced into the net.
It was the first tie the Blues had given Allen a 1-0 lead since Dec. 22 at Tampa Bay, and in each of his next six starts, the Blues had fallen behind, often early. It also snapped a run of eight consecutive home games where the Blues had allowed the first goal, a run that goes back to the game with Edmonton on Dec. 19.
Allen couldn't get through the first period with a clean sheet, however. The Blues' Jori Lehtera and Winnipeg's Bryan Little took matching penalties with 56.6 seconds to go in the period to create a four-on-four situation. Less than 30 seconds in, three Blues got caught up ice when the puck turned over and Winnipeg had a two-on-one, with Blake Wheeler getting a pass from Mark Scheifele and then giving it back for a goal with 30.9 seconds left in the period that Allen and defenseman Joel Edmundson were helpless to do much about.
The Jets weren't done scoring four-on-four. Twenty-two seconds into the second period, Morrisey outbattled Jay Bouwmeester for a puck behind the Blues' net, Scheifele got the puck and fed it out front Patrik Laine, who scored from the right circle to put the Jets up 2-1.
Winnipeg made it 3-1 just seven seconds into a power play. With Stastny off for tripping, Nikolaj Ehlers got the puck off the faceoff, skated around with the puck and then scored from close range.
The Blues couldn't score on a power play after Winnipeg had too many men on the ice, but did get a goal in the final minute of the period at even strength. Vladimir Tarasenko worked a give and go with Jaden Schwartz along the boards and scored from the left edge of the right circle to pull the Blues back within one. That gave Tarasenko goals in consecutive games after going eight in a row without a goal.
It was a second period that was reminiscent of the one when the teams met 10 days again in Manitoba. In that one, the Blues seriously outshot the Jets but were outscored. On Tuesday, the Blues outshot Winnipeg 15-6 in the period but were outscored 2-0. The fact that Allen got through two periods was no small feat. In his three previous starts, he'd been pulled either after the first period or early in the second.
The wind went out of the Blues sails early in the third period. David Perron turned the puck over in the neutral zone and Winnipeg came back at them. Jacob Trouba took a shot from high that caught the skate of Pietrangelo, reversed field and again left Allen, who was moving to his right, helpless to make the stop.
With Allen on the bench, the Blues got a goal from Pietrangelo with 12.2 seconds left but Winnipeg scored off a faceoff with 2.3 seconds left into an empty net to push the lead back to two.
