St. Louis will miss playoffs for third time in four seasons after Kings' 1-0 win over Oilers
Cam Fowler had just scored a goal on Saturday afternoon to give the St. Louis Blues a 4-2 lead against the Chicago Blackhawks late in the second period.
It was a capper to a solid period for the visitors, but what they didn't know at the time was seconds before, their season was made official.
Despite the Blues' 5-3 win over the Blackhawks at United Center in Chicago, they were officially eliminated from postseason contention when the Los Angeles Kings downed the Edmonton Oilers 1-0.
The Blues (34-33-12) are seven points behind L.A. but with just three games left in their season, they can max out with only six points. It was more of a formality for a team that was trying to overcome at one point, a 14-point deficit that closed within three as late as April 5 but unlike last season when the Blues used a franchise-record 12-game winning streak to get in with 96 points as the second wild card out of the Western Conference, there were too many teams and too much a deficit to pull this off for a second straight season.
It almost felt at the time when the Blues fell 5-4 to the San Jose Sharks on March 30 when they lost that game with 22 seconds remaining in regulation, then fell to the Kings 2-1 in overtime on April 1, coming up with only one of a possible four points in those two games, that was like getting kicked into the coffin and waiting for someone to put the final nail down, which came Saturday.
The silver lining to this also is the Blues getting some good out-of-town news when the Detroit Red Wings fell to the New Jersey Devils, eliminating the Red Wings from playoff contention in the Eastern Conference.
As you may remember, the Blues hold the Red Wings' first-round pick from the trade that sent Justin Faulk to Motown. And depending on how the lottery plays out, the Blues can look mighty good having two potential higher-end picks on the positive end. But we'll know about how all that plays out when the NHL holds its draft lottery on May 5.
As for the game Saturday, 13 players got onto the scoresheet as the Blues split the season series with the Blackhawks (28-38-14) with five different goal scorers (Jimmy Snuggerud, Alexey Toropchenko, Jordan Kyrou, Cam Fowler and Dalibor Dvorsky) while Jonatan Berggren and Tyler Tucker each picked up two assists.
Snuggerud's 18th of the season put the Blues ahead 1-0 at 9:26 of the first period:
Down a goal early in the second, Toropchenko's first in 21 games (Feb. 4 at Dallas) tied the game 2-2 at 4:10 of the second period on this backhand breakaway:
Kyrou put the Blues ahead for good with the lone power play the Blues had in the game with this top shelf shot from the left circle at 12:06 of the second for a 3-2 lead:
Fowler's scoop shot from the right circle at 17:20 of the second completed the Blues' three-goal second and a 4-2 lead:
And when Dvorsky ripped a one-timer from Neighbours at 7:04 of the third period that made it 5-2, it completed the Blues' scoring for the afternoon:
Joel Hofer made 32 saves in the game for his 22nd win of the season, and with an assist, Dylan Holloway now has 29 points (12 goals, 17 assists) in 22 games since the Olympic break.
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