Blues are edged by Flames despite hard-fought effort

Jake Allen and the red-hot Blues battled Brian Elliott and the Calgary Flames for the second game of their three-game handstand. Both teams were fighting for playoff positions

Photo: Billy Hurst/USA Today Sports
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The Blues came out slow. Troy Brouwer—a familiar face around this town—made it 1-0 with 2:49 left in the first period. The former Blue has 12 goals in his first season with Calgary.

“We raised our level after the first period,” said head coach Mike Yeo. “We had thirteen shots in the first period, but there were parts in our game that weren’t good enough. I thought we started picking up the tempo of our game, and started spending a lot more time in the offensive zone in the second period.”

Midway through the second, St. Louis started to gain momentum. Their consistent forechecking caused turnovers and led to scoring chances. Ivan Barbashev caught a crisp cross-ice pass from Colton Parayko. Drifting from hashmark to hashmark, Barbashev maneuvered around a defenseman and fired a shot. It was blocked by a Flame, but he stuck with the play and sent home his own rebound to tie the game at one.

After two periods of play, the shots were tied at 19.

Jaden Schwartz knocked in Parayko’s rebound to give the Blues a 2-1 lead, but Matt Bartkowski tied the game 10:53 into the third period.

Despite the highly competitive third period, Calgary finished the game with 2.5 seconds remaining in overtime. Sean Monahan’s pass caromed off a body in front and slid past Allen, who stood on his head the entire game.

“It’s tough when all three goals go off your own guys,” explained Alex Pietrangelo. “If you’re going to give up three goals off your own guys, it means probably for the most part you did a good job defensively. Tough bounces there, but we got a point out of it.”

While the team might feel they left a point on the ice, they’ll take one point and keep fighting. Their next game is on Monday, March 27, against the Coyotes.

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PJ Cox
​Owner