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Blues erupt in second period in 4-1 win over Golden Knights

Updated November 16, 2018 - 11:39 pm

If the Golden Knights are able to right the ship and put themselves in position to reach the postseason, Friday’s effort will become a distant memory.

But if they’re unable to climb the standings over the next 60-plus games, they can point to games like this as part of the reason why.

The Knights continued their second-period struggles and lost 4-1 to last-place St. Louis in front of an increasingly restless announced crowd of 18,488 at T-Mobile Arena.

“It’s early in the season, I know, but this has happened way too often,” forward Pierre-Edouard Bellemare said. “One bad bounce, and then suddenly we’re two, three behind. I really couldn’t pinpoint exactly what’s going on, but it seems to happen every time in the second (period). If we don’t figure it out fast, we’re going to be in trouble.”

William Carrier opened the scoring in the first period before the Knights allowed four unanswered goals, including three in the second period.

Ryan O’Reilly scored twice, and Vladimir Tarasenko and Jaden Schwartz each finished with two assists for the Blues, who remain last in the Central Division with 17 points.

The Knights have been outscored 28-17 in the second, and only Ottawa has given up more goals (29) in the middle period.

“It’s been biting us in the ass all year, that second period,” defenseman Deryk Engelland said. “It’s a good first period I thought, for the most part, and we come out in the second period and just get lazy or something and other teams pick it up and we don’t match it. Then you get to the third and you’re fighting from behind.”

The Knights had won three straight at home but failed to build on Wednesday’s 5-0 win over Anaheim in their final game without suspended defenseman Nate Schmidt.

St. Louis goaltender Jake Allen, who entered with a 3.73 goals-against average and .883 save percentage, came up with 32 saves.

“I wouldn’t say this game we didn’t work hard enough. Maybe we didn’t work smart enough,” Bellemare said. “It didn’t feel like we got outworked. I feel like in the whole picture of the game, four minutes kind of killed us, and that should not happen. It’s as simple as that.”

The Blues scored three goals in the second period en route to a 5-3 win over the Knights on Nov. 1 and duplicated the effort Friday.

O’Reilly deflected Schwartz’s shot for his 10th goal and second goal of the game at 7:02 to give the Blues a 2-1 lead.

Brayden Schenn, who was activated from injured reserve after missing the past four games, scored on a deflection with 3:47 left in the second, and Oskar Sundqvist pounced on a rebound 59 seconds later for a 4-1 St. Louis lead.

“They scored a couple deflection goals going to the net and us not winning blue-paint battles,” coach Gerard Gallant said. “I thought we played an OK period in the second. I was more disappointed in the third period, to be honest with you. We didn’t have the pushback. We’re down 4-1, and I expected our guys to come out hard and try to get a goal early and make it a game, and I just didn’t see that.”

The Knights were on the right side of a favorable bounce for the second consecutive game and went ahead at 6:03 of the first period.

Blues defenseman Carl Gunnarsson misplayed the puck in the neutral zone, springing Carrier for a breakaway. The speed winger beat goalie Jake Allen down low for his third goal in the past seven games.

St. Louis tied the score 38 seconds later, as O’Reilly cut through the middle and lifted a backhander that appeared to deflect in off the top of Marc-Andre Fleury’s stick.

It was the first goal Fleury allowed in his gold pads and ended a streak of 141:26 without allowing a goal at home.

” I think when we score a goal, we seem to be stepping off the gas a little bit right after,” forward Max Pacioretty said. “It seems like we get scored on pretty quickly after we have a big goal. That was the case tonight. Even if that happens, you still have to find your game and find a way to end up on top. It’s happened too many times this year.”

More Golden Knights: Follow at reviewjournal.com/GoldenKnights and @HockeyinVegas on Twitter.

Contact David Schoen at dschoen@reviewjournal.com or 702-387-5203. Follow @DavidSchoenLVRJ on Twitter.

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