TEMPE Ariz. — The Blues are finished with Mullett Arena for the season, and as far as they're concerned — good riddance.
A 1-1 game disintegrated into a 6-2 loss Tuesday at the temporary home of the Arizona Coyotes as the Blues continue to have trouble playing defense and scoring on the power play.
The Blues had a lot of pep in their step Tuesday. They had all kinds of chances offensively and registered a season high for shots on goal (42). But they couldn't get enough of those shots across the goal line.
And they continue to cement their legacy as one of the worst defenses in recent Blues history. As usual, Blues tormentors Clayton Keller and Nick Schmaltz were in the act — each scoring a goal.
When the teams met here on Jan. 26, Arizona goalie Karel Vejmelka registered a shutout. They got him for six goals in St. Louis two weeks later in an overtime win. But he was spectacular through two periods Tuesday, stopping the Blues on no less than five breakaways.
In the second period alone, he thwarted break-ins by Brandon Saad, then 2-on-0 breakaway (stopping Robert Thomas), and then later a solo breakaway by Thomas. Vejmelka looked like he didn’t know he had the puck on the Thomas solo breakaway.
But with the Blues down 3-1 in the third, Pavel Buchnevich skated in and beat Vejmelka with a slick backhand move to make it 3-2 with 11:42 left to play. It was Buchnevich’s 20th goal of the season and his second of the game.
Travis Boyd scored his second goal of the night 2 ½ minutes later to restore the Coyotes’ two-goal lead at 4-2.
Buchnevich stays hot
Buchnevich entered the game with a five-game point streak since returning from a lower-body on Feb. 23. It didn’t take him long to make it a six-game point streak.
Taking a stretch pass from Justin Faulk, Buchnevich raced in and beat Vejmelka for his 19th goal of the season just 2:12 into the game. It was Buchnevich’s 19th goal of the season. Entering Tuesday’s game, he had two goals and seven assists over his previous five games.
Although he’s missed 13 games due to injury, Buchnevich is the Blues’ only point-per-game center this season and that’s after registering 76 points in 73 games last season — his first with St. Louis.
The assist for Faulk gave him seven points over his last eight games.
The pace was brisk and the Blues had a lot of energy coming out this time around, a far cry from late January when they were embarrassed in a 5-0 loss.
But the Blues didn’t get out of the first period unscathed. Christian Fischer tied it at 1-1 at the 12:53 mark on his 11th goal, which came in close after taking a friendly bounce off the boards at the net front.
Power outage
The Blues had good puck movement, had decent chances, but went 0-for-2 on the power play in the first period. That put them at 2-for-30 over a nine-game stretch, dating to the departure of Ryan O’Reilly via trade to the Toronto Maple Leafs.
Newcomers Kasperi Kapanen and Jakub Vrana played the flanks on the second power-play unit, but weren’t on the ice all that much because the first unit got the lion’s share of the time.
Then came two more power plays at the end of the second period. With 1:32 left in the period, Barrett Hayton went off for roughing Colton Parayko. It became a 5-on-3 Blues power play when Jack McBain was whistled for high-sticking Buchnevich with 47.2 seconds reminaing.
The Blues couldn’t score before the period ended, but took 28 seconds of 5-on-3 followed by 45 seconds of 5-on-4 into the third. But when the third period started, the Blues couldn’t get anything going on the remainder of the power plays. They dropped to 2-for-32 on the PP since the Ryan O’Reilly trade. That’s not good. (And it would drop to 2-for-33 later in the period.)
The situation worsened for the Blues when Boyd scored on a backhand from the slot just 2:01 into the third to make it a 3-1 game. Keller had the primary assist on the play.
Speaking of Vrana
In his first game with the Blues, Vrana made his presence felt with a breakaway three minutes in but with Vejmelka making a strong save. Vrana read a pass by Arizona and picked off a centering pass then flashed his speed but to no avail.
That Schmaltz guy
You didn’t think the Blues would get through a game against Nick Schmaltz without him scoring a goal, did you? Schmaltz, the younger brother of former Blues first-round draft pick Jordan Schmaltz, scored a power play goal to give Arizona a 2-1 lead with 3:35 left in the second period.
Hayton made a great cross-ice pass to feed Schmaltz backdoor. It happened in the blink of an eye. It was Schmaltz’s 20th goal of the season and five of them have come in three games against the Blues this season.
Schmaltz’s nine points against the Blues (five goals, four assists) is the most by any Blues opponent this season.
And of course, Keller had to join in on the fun. Keller had a secondary assist — giving him 22 points against his hometown Blues over his NHL career, more than he’s had against any opponent.
