Blues can't complete comeback, fall to Lightning 2-1

Tarasenko scores late, not enough as 

trip finishes 2-2-0; Blais makes NHL debut

By LOU KORAC
TAMPA, Fla. -- The Tampa Bay Lightning had scored 18 goals, an average of 4.5 per game, through their first four games in a 3-1-0 start.

So for the Blues to hold the high-powered Lightning offense, it's a good chance coming away with two points, right?

But finding offense was tough to come by despite some really good scoring chances for the Blues, and two mistakes turned into two goals that were enough to turn a good trip into an average one with a 2-1 loss to the Tampa Bay Lightning on Saturday night before 19,092 at Amalie Arena.

(St. Louis Blues photo)

Blues defenseman Vince Dunn (29) tries to make a play for the puck against

the Lightning's Yanni Gourde on Saturday in Tampa Bay's 2-1 win.

Vladimir Tarasenko scored late for the Blues (4-2-0), who have lost two in a row after starting the four-game trip with two wins in New York, and they had a late power play with 49.6 seconds remaining to give them a 6-on-4 but couldn't solve Andrei Vasilevskiy in the end.

"Obviously they're a team with a lot of skill," Blues center Brayden Schenn said of the Lightning. "They get one on the power play and I thought we got away from our game there a little bit. Kind of got it back in the third, but (Nikita) Kucherov makes a great individual effort there to get them a goal. We've still got to find a way there to get some shots, try to find ways to generate more chances and that's going to result in goals. 

"One goal, that's not going to win you many hockey games. Jake (Allen) was good again tonight. Gotta find ways to, not necessarily create more but find those dirty goals, get more chances around the net, I guess."

The Blues, who debuted forward and 2014 sixth-round pick Sam Blais, played a decent road game early but a poor penalty allowed the Lightning (4-1-0) to score on a Tyler Johnson goal, a goal Allen felt he should have stopped, and a play in the neutral zone not made by defenseman Joel Edmundson led to Kucherov's goal, what turned out to be the game-winner.

"In all honesty, there was a stretch in the second period, the second half of the second period where we got away from our game, but before that, there was large chunks where we were controlling the play, controlling the puck," Blues coach Mike Yeo said. "I thought we started to make a couple really loose plays with the puck. We lost a little patience that we needed to play with against that team. Next thing you know, it turned into some momentum from them and obviously a penalty and next thing you know, you're chasing the game and that changes the complexion of the game there. 

"I liked that the guys kind of refocused going into the third period. They didn't quit all night, they battled hard and we know that's not enough. We had a number of quality chances, but we made it way too easy on their goalie tonight. Breakdown at the end of the game where we're getting shots and we're standing off to the side of the net. It's hard to score in this league when good goalies are seeing pucks. You've got to take away their eyes, you've got to get more traffic. That's what creates more rebounds, that's what creates more second chances and we need more of that mentality; we don't have enough of it."

The only blemish for the Blues in the second was one of those momentum-killing penalties the Blues seem to be good at, too many men on the ice, and it cost them for the only goal of the period when Johnson fired a puck from the left circle through Allen, who looked like he had a good look at it, at 8:20 to give Tampa Bay a 1-0 lead.

Blues penalty killers did not get one clearance during the kill, which lasted for 1:20.

Johnson looked like he was trying to use Robert Bortuzzo on the screen, but moved to enough of an open spot to give Allen a look. The puck got through Allen, caromed off the bottom of his glove hand and in.

"Straight through me," Allen said. "Terrible goal." 

Kucherov made it 2-0 at 6:27 of the third when he was able to get a puck from Steven Stamkos after he won a battle outside the blue line with Edmundson. Kucherov went in on Allen and powered a backhand high and in.

Edmundson slammed his stick on the goalpost after.

"'Eddy,' when he's on top of his game, he's big, he's physical, he's on his toes, he's aggressive and assertive and that's what he did for us in the playoffs and we need that from him all the time right now," Yeo said. "He's got to be a presence back there. When he does that, he's a nightmare for teams to play against."

The Blues got to within one when Tarasenko took Jaden Schwartz's flip pass, skated into the right circle and snapped a shot past a screened Vasilevskiy to make it 2-1.

And when Schenn was high-sticked late, Colton Parayko had a couple good looks with that booming shot of his, but that's where Yeo was lamenting the Blues not getting traffic in front.

"We have a couple chances, but I think we've still got to do a better job of 6-on-4," Schenn said. "Six-on-five's tough, but 6-on-4, you've got to find ways to generate better chances, better plays. Forty-five seconds is a lot of time. We've got to find ways to be better there, too."

Blais opened the game with Schwartz and Schenn and played 6:14 with two solid scoring chances, and he blocked two shots. He finished with 17:18 ice time, had two shots on goal and and two blocks.

"It was a good moment for sure in front of my family," Blais said. "I've been dreaming of that for all my life. It was very exciting there for me and I think I did pretty good for my first NHL game.

"I had a couple good chances but I didn't capitalize. It was a couple good chances. I played with real good players and that helped a lot."

There was a play where Blais chipped a puck up to Schwartz, who skated inside and found Blais in the right circle, but his shot was high on a good look.

"It was a good play," Blais said. "I just missed. I think I missed the net on that one. It was very fun to play with these two very good players. I'm gonna remember the night all my life."

Blais skated onto the ice during pregame alone, something he knew was coming.

"They told me before the warmup that I as going to go there," Blais said. "It was very funny.

"When I got the first shift out of the way, I just played my game. It went pretty good."

Yeo, who liked defenseman Vince Dunn tonight, liked Blais' game, too.

"'Dunner' had another positive game and I thought Blaiser's debut was really good," Yeo said. "There's some things without the puck that we have to be careful of because they could have turned into some goals against, but he did a lot of really good things with the puck and that's a pretty good debut for a young kid.

"That's the knack he has. He finds himself in those situations. He reads how plays develop and he has the ability. He had three quality shots tonight. I think he'd like to hit the net on the one, but I think he was kind of thinking pass before that. Pretty pleased with him and the poise that he showed in the ability go out there and create some offense."

(St. Louis Blues photo)

Tampa Bay's Ondrej Palat (middle) looks to get a shot off while being

defended by the Blues' Colton Parayko and goalie Jake Allen Saturday.

"He had a great game," Schenn said of Blais. "No nerves at all. He was holding onto pucks down low, holding the puck on the rush, making plays. Obviously you see, he has a ton of skill. I've played with him four games now, three in preseason and one up here now. He's definitely got NHL-caliber skill that can make plays in tight spaces and he's a lot of fun to play with."

The Blues are off until Wednesday when they take on Chicago.

"We're 4-2 right now. We're doing alright," Allen said. "We have a long way to go. We definitely took a step backwards, I think, a little bit. But we get a couple days here, which is nice, get home and get regrouped. Big test against the Hawks here, first time this year."

"Heading into this one, we knew we could have been 3-1 on this trip, a pretty good trip heading home," Schenn said. "Unfortunately, we gave two away here in Florida. Obviously we weren't great the other night against the Panthers. Tonight, it was a tough hockey game."