Blues Blow By Panthers

     The Florida Panthers were unable to hold on to a third-period lead and fell to the St. Louis Blues 4-3 on Tuesday night at Enterprise Center. It was the first game on the road for the Panthers since they finished a season-high, eight-game home stand.
     In the first period, Florida(11-12-6) got the only tally and had just five shots on goal. Aleksander Barkov tapped the puck up to Jonathan Huberdeau at the blue line. His lead pass got to Evgenii Dadonov in low right circle and he scored on a forehand shot from close range with 4:31 left for his 14th goal of the season.
     St. Louis(11-14-4) rallied back early in the third period with two goals in an 11-second span. Robert Thomas carried the puck from the right corner across the end wall and behind the Panthers net. His centering pass to slot went to Ivan Barbashev and he scored on a wrist shot at 18:32.
     The Blues took the lead at the 18:21 mark. A clearing pass around the boards was stopped by Jaden Schwartz on the right-wing wall.  He found David Perron for a one-time slapshot from the top right circle that beat Roberto Luongo.
     They made it 3-1 with 8:48 left in the third. Schwatz raced down the left side and behind the Panthers cage. He sent the puck to Perron in the right circle and his slap-pass went off Frank Vatrano for a goal.
     The Panthers answered back 32 seconds later and were down 3-2. Mark Pysyk pinched in and backhanded the puck to Jared McCann in the left corner. He sprinted around the Blues cage and fed MacKenzie Weegar for his first goal of the year on a one-time slapshot from the right-circle dot.
     Florida tied the game at 3-3 with 6:46 remaining. Barkov made a cross-ice pass behind the net to Huberdeau to the right goal line. He centered to the low slot and Mike Hoffman tapped the puck by Jake Allen.
     St. Louis came back to go in front with 3:55 to go. Perron moved the puck back to Vince Dunn on the left point. His slapshot was saved by Luongo, however Brayden Schenn slipped in a backhand shot from the crease area for the go-ahead tally.