CALGARY, Alberta _ The St. Louis Blues were held to two goals or less for the fifth consecutive game and lost again, falling 2-1 to the Calgary Flames at the Scotiabank Saddledome on Wednesday night.
In the past five games, the Blues have scored zero, one, two, zero and one goal for a total of four in five games. The Blues have lost four of those five games, with the only win coming in a 2-0 shutout win over Winnipeg in which goalie Carter Hutton had to make 48 saves.
Hutton started again on Wednesday _ the Blues face Edmonton on Thursday night with Jake Allen in goal _ and faced 33 shots. He gave up two goals to the Flames, the first of which was knocked out of the air and past him.
The Blues' only goal was from Brayden Schenn on a strong individual effort, as he blew past a Calgary defender and wristed a quick shot past goalie Mike Smith.
That sent the game into the third period tied. Shortly after the Blues had an unsuccessful power play, Ivan Barbashev went to clear a puck in front of the net, but before he could get to it, Calgary defenseman Dougie Hamilton chopped at the puck and it caught Hutton off balance and went past him to give Calgary the lead with 12:03 to go.
The Blues had just 22 shots on goal and other than the Schenn goal didn't get much from their power play. The Blues pulled Hutton with 45 seconds to play _ they tried to get him off earlier but couldn't _ and didn't manage a shot on goal. The Blues had just five shots on goal in the third period.
It was the 15th straight Blues game in which the team that scored first won.
Tage Thompson, just called up from the minors, was on a line with Paul Stastny and Alexander Steen and the three combined for seven shots on goal, almost one-third of the team's total.
