Panthers hand Blues first defeat

The St. Louis Blues were finally pushed into the loss column in Florida on Thursday (Oct. 12, 2017) as the Florida Panthers scored three times in 6:16 to build a 3-1 lead on its way to a 5-2 win at the BB&T Center.

After collecting wins in its first four games, the Blues battled through a scoreless first period and grabbed the lead 74 seconds into the middle frame on Paul Stastny’s second goal of the season, from Vladimir Tarasenko and Alex Pietrangelo.

That lead lasted all of 12 seconds before Ian McCoshen pulled the host Panthers even and Vincent Trochek had the home team in front 1:19 after that. Jared McCann scored a third Panther goal 7:42 into the period.

The Panthers continued its run with two more, scored by Aaron Ekblad and Nick Bjugstad in the third before Vince Dunn finally pulled one back for the Blues, from Scottie Upshall and Pietrangelo 69 seconds from the final buzzer. The two assists for Pietrangelo give him six through the first five games of the season.

Roberto Luongo grabbed the win, stopping 37 of 39 shots for the Panthers while Jake Allen made 33 saves in goal for the Blues. After a pair of wins in New York, this four-game road trip will come to an end on Saturday (Oct. 14) when at the Amalie Center in Tampa when the 4-1-0-0 Blues visit the 2-1-1-0 Lightning.