Disappointed but hardly disillusioned, that's how Avalanche coach Patrick Roy and his players were feeling Saturday after a hard-fought 2-1 loss to St. Louis before an overflow crowd of 18,137 at the Pepsi Center.
The Avalanche lost center Paul Stastny to a back injury on his first shift inside the opening minute of the first period, which certainly didn't help. Stastny, who anchors a line with left wing Gabriel Landeskog and right wing Nathan MacKinnon, missed two games earlier this season because of back spasms.
MacKinnon, who didn't have a shot on goal and had his scoring streak stopped at 13 games, spent a good portion of the game at center -- his natural position -- with Landeskog and Jamie McGinn.
"It definitely threw us off a little bit," MacKinnon said of Stastny's absence. "Obviously Paulie is a huge part of our team. We were juggling lines around at times. I thought as a unit our line could've been better. We created some chances at the end and I thought we deserved to tie it."
Roy said he thought Stastny "tweaked" his back. The Avalanche is off Sunday and Stastny's status won't be known until the morning skate Monday before the home game against Winnipeg.
"It hurts, obviously. He's one of our best players," Matt Duchene said. "He's a big piece, especially on the power play. It suffered a little bit not having him. It was unfortunate to lose him that early, but I'm sure it's just a short-term thing and he'll be back soon. He said it was really a harmless thing. He couldn't believe what happened. He'll be back soon, hopefully."
The Avalanche was outshot 2-1 on three power plays.
"I think that was one of our weaknesses," said PA Parenteau, who scored at 8:57 of the third period. "I thought the power plays have been really good lately moving the puck pretty well, but they played really good and we didn't. I mean, a power-play goal would’ve made a huge difference there and that’s something maybe we have to address. I think we have to take advantage of our power plays, for sure.… Though the Avalanche lost for the third time in as many games to the Blues, this one was a lot more competitive than the first two, which St. Louis won by a combined score of 11-4. The Blues are 17-0-1 against Central Division teams.
The first-place Blues (43-14-6, 92 points) stretched their lead to five points on the third-place Avalanche (41-18-5, 87 points), whose four-game winning streak came to an end.
"It could easily have been our game," said Duchene, who set up Parenteau's goal, had four of the Avalanche's 27 shots and won nine of 16 faceoffs. "We played well enough to win and I think everyone in the building could tell that. I think they know that, too. I think everyone saw our effort and our tenaciousness. We didn't back down from them the entire time.
"We're right there. They're one of the best teams in the league and we just gave them a heck of a run. We feel we played well enough to win. That's the way it goes sometimes. I think the message should be sent to them that we're for real. We're not a fly-by-night or a flash-in-the-pan team."
Blues coach Ken Hitchcock said as much.
"(Roy's) team plays the right way," he said. "Hard to play against. They don’t win because they have talent, they win because they play the right way. That’s why they’re so good. They play the right way, they don’t cheat the game. I talked to Matt a lot about him, he loves playing for him. His team’s going to be hard to play in the playoffs. Whoever gets them is going to have one of the hardest matchups they’re ever going to see. You have young players with all kinds of skill who play the right way.
"It was quite a hockey game," Hitchcock added. "Both teams are playing at the top of their game. Both teams knew what was at stake and played their hearts out."
The Avalanche pulled goalie Semyon Varlamov (23 saves) with 2:33 to play and had some good chances but couldn't send the game to overtime. The left side of the Blues' net was open when the puck bounced off Parenteau's skate and away from him.
"Well, I got it off my left skate and tried to bounce it back and my other skate went behind it," he said. "It’s a tough bounce, but I mean you just have to get those.…
Except for the result, Roy was happy with the way his team played.
"I thought both teams played really well," Roy said. "I thought it was a hard-fought game and was very entertaining for our fans. Our guys battled until the end and we had some good chances 6 on 5. We showed a lot of good things out there. It was a lot different than the last two games we played against these guys. We were physical, we had some good bodychecks. Sometimes, unfortunately, you're not always rewarded for the way you play. I thought we had better chances than them. I thought we deserved as much to win."
Patrik Berglund gave the Blues a 2-0 lead at 3:53 of the third period with an uncanny shot from the right circle for his fourth goal in the past four games. He spun around and shot the puck by Varlamov's glove.
The Avalanche closed to 2-1 on Parenteau's goal. Duchene moved from the side of the net and cut inside Blues forward Steve Ott for a shot that goalie Ryan Miller (26 saves) stopped, but Parenteau banged in the rebound.
Miller made a save against Landeskog with 6 minutes to play after a Blues turnover. Landeskog was on his knees when he shot the puck off Miller's mask.
"When he fell to his knees I thought maybe he’d consider pushing it to a guy who was still up," said Miller, who has allowed six goals while winning all four of his starts since his trade from Buffalo a little over a week ago. "He caught me in the eye right there. I was kind of fortunate he didn’t pick a corner and he hit me. When he went down I was thinking pass and maybe I hesitated a little bit. Smart play by him to shoot it. Not really an attempted save."
The Blues took a 1-0 lead at 7:03 of the second period on a goal by David Backes, who has six goals and five assists in his past nine games against the Avalanche. He drove to the net to cash in a pass from T.J. Oshie, who sidestepped two Avalanche defenders as he skated down left wing.
The Blues are 35-1-4 when they score first and the Avalanche is 31-1-3.
Backes' goal came 17 seconds after the Blues held the Avalanche to one shot on goal during a power play. Landeskog hit the crossbar with a shot just before the power play expired.
"There's always key moments in a game and Landy hit the crossbar and they go the other way and took the 1-0 lead," Roy said. "It was the difference after 40 minutes of play."
Avalanche defenseman Jan Hejda nearly tied the game with 1:40 to go in the period. He took a shot from the left point that clanged off the far post.
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MacKinnon had at least one shot on goal in 30 consecutive games since Dec. 17 in Dallas before Saturday. He had five goals and 13 assists in his 13-game scoring streak that began Jan. 25 in Tampa ... Duchene extended his scoring streak to seven games (three goals, eight assists), a career high ... Ryan O'Reilly had an assist to stretch his scoring streak to six games (three goals, seven assists) ... Parenteau has six points (four goals, two assists) in his past seven games.
The Avalanche is carrying eight defensemen, so Roy has been rotating which ones to sit out, with Ryan Wilson being scratched all the time now. Nick Holden sat out Saturday.
"Right now our seven D's are playing well," Roy said. "They deserve that rotation. There's always someone that does something that's very special. We are going to have to make a decision when playoff time comes, but right now we feel comfortable to rotate everybody. It's a tough schedule with a lot of games in a row and I think it's perfect that way."