Well, at least they scored.

The Calgary Flames went into St. Louis to face the Blues on Tuesday night riding a streak of two consecutive shutout losses. They managed to get onto the scoresheet a couple times, but unfortunately they just couldn’t overcome their miscues.

The Flames skated to a 3-2 road loss to the Blues.

In a pretty back and forth first period, the Blues took advantage of a couple errors by the Flames to grab a lead.

Midway through the period, Sam Honzek was called for tripping while battling for the puck in the offensive zone. On the resulting power play, Dylan Holloway deftly deflected a shot from Justin Faulk past Dustin Wolf to give the Blues a 1-0 lead.

A few minutes later, the Blues scored again. The Flames had the puck in the offensive zone, with Yan Kuznetsov jumping into the rush. But the Flames turned over the puck. Oskar Sundqvist noticed Matthew Kessel open in the neutral zone and made a great pass to send him in with a clean shooting lane on Wolf. Kessel’s shot beat Wolf to give the Blues a 2-0 lead.

First period shots were 14-10 Blues. Via Natural Stat Trick, 5v5 scoring chances were 7-7 and high-danger scoring chances were 5-2 Blues.

Midway through the second period, the Blues scored on an awkward sequence. The Flames won an offensive zone draw but lost the puck. Alexey Toropchenko got a one-handed scoring chance after being sprung into the Flames zone by a flip-pass across the neutral zone. But Wolf couldn’t corral the puck after Toropchenko’s chance, and a scramble in front led to Nathan Walker jamming the loose puck into the net to give the Blues a 3-0 lead.

But then the Flames scored twice in 25 seconds, just as we all expected.

Brayden Pachal sent Matt Coronato in with a clean shooting lane on Jordan Binnington. Coronato’s shot beat Binnington to cut the lead to 3-1 Blues.

On the very next shift, Rasmus Andersson’s point shot – with a decent amount of traffic – beat Binnington high glove side to cut the Blues lead to 3-2.

Second period shots were 14-10 Flames. 5v5 scoring chances were 7-5 Blues and high-danger scoring chances were 4-1 Blues.

The Flames had a late second period power play that spilled over into the third period. They had four shots on that advantage, but couldn’t beat Binnington again to tie the game.

The Blues thought they scored on a goal-mouth scramble early in the third period, but the officials waved the goal off due to goaltender interference.

The Flames kept pressing throughout the third period, even pulling Wolf for the extra attacker. But they just couldn’t solve Binnington, and the Blues held on for a 3-2 victory.

Third period shots were 16-7 Flames. 5v5 scoring chances were 4-3 Blues and high-danger scoring chances were 2-1 Flames.

The good news is that the Flames scored.

The bad news is that they couldn’t out-score their mistakes. They battled, but their execution was a bit off throughout this game and if you look back at the goals they allowed, they all came off either puck management miscues or ill-timed penalties. In other words: the same story we’ve seen throughout the first 18 games of this season.

The Flames weren’t bad in this hockey game, but they just weren’t good enough to win.

Matt Coronato was really noticeable in this game and it was nice to see him rewarded with a goal given how many chances he seemed to generate.

The Flames have struggled to generate a ton of offence at five-on-five this season. They entered the third period down by just a goal and they had a power play. They really needed a goal there given how the game was going. Unfortunately, their power play couldn’t capitalize and they never got the tying goal.

Dustin Wolf was in net after backing up Devin Cooley on Sunday in Minnesota.

Join Ryan Pinder and myself right after the game for After Burner!

The Flames (4-12-2) are headed home. They host the San Jose Sharks on Thursday night.

This article is a Presentation of Platinum Mitsubishi, family owned and operated by lifelong Calgarians. Home of the best warranty in the business with ten year warranties available. Check out the showroom at 2720 Barlow Trail NE or online at www.mitsu.ca