ST. LOUIS _ Two turnovers, one by goalie Jordan Binnington early in the second period and another by Oskar Sundqvist early in the third set up the goals as Arizona pulled out a desperately needed win and the Blues missed a chance to gain ground in the Central Division with a 3-1 loss at Enterprise Center on Tuesday.
Binnington tried to backhand the puck out from behind his net and he missed Jaden Schwartz, putting the puck right on the stick of Richard Panik, and couldn't get in back in goal in time to stop the shot into an empty net.
"Not ideal timing to give that one up," Binnington said. "I've got to be better there. I thought I had Schwartzie on the backside there. I just missed my pass there and unfortunately it ended up in the goal and gave them the lead."
In the third, Sundqvist couldn't hang on to the puck in his own end and it was grabbed by Brad Richardson, who fed Vinnie Hinostroza for the goal.
Jaden Schwartz scored a power-play goal with 1:11 to play after the Blues had pulled Binnington for a two-man advantage late in a power play. The Blues pulled Binnington after winning the next faceoff but couldn't score. Pat Maroon passed to Tyler Bozak in front of the goal but they didn't connect and Ekman-Larsson shot the puck the length of the ice for an empty net goal.
Those were among the few chances Arizona had in the game but they were all they needed. The Blues had a significant edge in shots on goal on Arizona, 40-22, but couldn't beat goalie Darcy Kuemper. The Blues had a 76-34 edge in shot attempts.
"We outshot them, we played well," captain Alex Pietrangelo said. "But again, we can say we had zone time but we just gotta find ways to score goals. One goal, six-on-five, or just on the power play isn't good enough right now. We gotta find a way to score."
By the end of the period, the Blues had three players _ Brayden Schenn, Sammy Blais and Joel Edmundson _ in the training room after being shaken up on the ice. Earlier, Oskar Sundqvist went to the training room but returned. Schenn went slowly to the bench after a crash into the boards behind the Arizona goal. Blais collided with Oliver Ekman-Larsson and was crawling to the bench before play stopped. He went down the hallway to the training room with no weight on his left leg.
Edmundson did not return to the game with what was termed a lower-body injury. Blais and Schenn returned to play the third period.
With the win, Arizona jumped over Minnesota and into the second wild-card spot in the West. Both teams are even on games played.
Pat Maroon got in a fight with Arizona's Ilya Lyubushkin and easily outslugged the defenseman.
The Blues are in their second game without forward Vladimir Tarasenko, and for this one, they moved rookie Robert Thomas onto the top line. The trio of Ryan O'Reilly, Schenn and Thomas combined for eight shots on goal in the first two periods, none by Thomas, who had one shot attempt.
The Blues outshot Arizona 12-5 in the period and 10-7 in the second.
It's a big game playoff wise for Arizona. According to hockeyviz.com, a Coyotes win would increase their postseason chances from 42 to 53 percent, while a loss would drop them to 33 percent.
Dallas won, moving two points back of the Blues, while Winnipeg lost, costing the Blues a chance to pull within three points of the division leader.
"It's not gonna be easy," Pietrangelo said. "We know that. I don't know how many games we got left, 13-14 games, you gotta play well. You gotta win hockey games. So get on the road here, regroup tomorrow, we got a big weekend ahead of us."
