In St Louis, the visiting New Jersey Devils scored five goals in the third period to rally past the Blues for a 7-4 win on Thursday.
Nico Hischier scored a pair of goals for New Jersey and added a helper.
“A tremendous comeback,” New Jersey head coach Lindy Ruff said. “I thought the second period got away from us a little bit. We had a couple turnovers in the defensive zone that allowed them a couple opportunities, but after the second, we talked about the mistakes we made. We said, ‘We’ve got one shot to tie the game up.’ We played really well in the first period. We knew they’d make a push in the second, but I thought our guys responded really well in the third.”
Yegor Sharangovich had three points for New Jersey as well with a goal and two assist.
New Jersey moved to 17-26-5.
Jon Gillies made 27 saves in the New Jersey win.
Brayden Schenn hit a double for the Blues.
“Obviously not good enough start to finish tonight,” Schenn said. “It’s not a confidence issue, it’s not a hard-work issue. I think it’s maybe a little bit of a committing to the little details that maybe win you the game and just got to find a way to be better at that. Not be better, just be more consistent with it. Those are things we can clean up, and we will.”
P.K. Subban added a goal and two points for New Jersey.
The Blues fell to 26-14-5.
“In the third period, the game was under control until they tied it up and then I thought that we lost our confidence there and just kind of fell apart,” St. Louis head coach Craig Berube said. “We’ve been off a long time, that could’ve been part of it. We’ll look at the thing tomorrow and get ready for Saturday (against the Chicago Blackhawks).”
Justin Faulk and Klim Kostin added single markers for St Louis.
Jimmy Vessey and Michael McLeod also scored for New Jersey.
“A little bit of the cliches, but we played the right way, we did the right things at the right times to make ourselves successful and the opportunities we got, we scored on, and that’s the difference,” New Jersey’s Damon Severson said. “When you’re burying your opportunities, that’s the key. There were some shot blocks, some guys taking hits to make plays. A lot of good commitment tonight from our team.
“That’s a real good veteran team over there. We knew they were going to be solid against us tonight, and we really needed to bear down. I thought our guys skated well tonight. That was another key thing for sure.”
Jesper Boqvist and Hischer hit empty-net goals for the 7-4 final.
Jordan Binnington made 22 saves in the Blues loss.
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