ST. LOUIS -- On a night where the St. Louis Blues spoke all day Thursday how their game against the San Jose Sharks would be tough due to returning from a lengthy four-game, 10-day road trip, it played out just as they predicted.

The Blues fell 4-3 to the Sharks despite a third-period push that saw them early tie it in the closing seconds when Pavel Buchnevich clanked a shot in the slot off the cross bar.

Forward scored goal, assist in 4-3 loss against Sharks

A number of skaters played below average, but Jake Neighbours did his part with a goal and an assist.

He scored a beautiful goal to tie the game 1-1 when the Blues were being heavily outplayed, scoring at 10:26 of the first period on an outlet from Ryan Suter, then toe-dragging the puck by Sharks defenseman Timothy Liljegren before beating Alexandar Georgiev top shelf, glove side:

"I got the puck in the corner, found 'Sutes' and he saw me beat my guy and gave it back to me," Neighbours said. "Just kind of saw the d-man was turned the wrong way, tried to pull it in and just get a shot off."

Neighbours also led the third period push when he got a puck towards the net that Brayden Schenn collected at the right side of the net to deposit to make it 3-2 at 5:34 of the third period.

It just wasn't enough in the end.

"It's tough, right," Neighbours said. "You're traveling through the west coast, time change, a bunch of travel. Guys aren't sleeping in their own beds. You can make all the excuses you wat, but you've got to show up ready to play. We knew we weren't going to feel great, but you've got to be sharp mentally. Can't make some of the mistakes that we made, just kind of gave them some goals. You get behind the Eight-ball, it's hard to come back in this league.

"There's no excuses. We knew we weren't going to feel our best, but you've got to be sharp mentally."

St. Louis Blues Player Of The Game vs. San Jose Sharks: Jake Neighbours