Blues make short work of Blackhawks in 5-1 loss

With the St. Louis Blues having lost three of their last four games - and yielding 7 goals in two of them - the Blackhawks had to know they were heading into a hornet's nest on Saturday.

And sure enough, coach Derek King's squad got stung by one of the best teams in the Western Conference.

The Blues took a 2-0 lead after one period, scored late in the second to go up 3-1 and went on to post a 5-1 victory at Enterprise Center.

"That's a good hockey team. We know that. We knew it was gonna be a challenge," a clearly frustrated King told reporters. "That's not good enough.

"I've got to watch my words here, but we just can't do that. You can't put an effort like that out and expect to maybe steal a game from somebody. It's not gonna happen."

The Hawks, who continue to defer to teammates rather than fire pucks on net, took a season-low 16 shots on goal.

"They're a big team," said Dylan Strome, who scored the Hawks' lone goal early in the second period. "They clog up the middle pretty well. I thought we passed up a lot of shots, myself included."

Said King: "We refused to shoot the puck. We refused to rush the net. It's something we're gonna have to address."

Strome made it 2-1 during a two-man advantage when he tapped in a pass from Patrick Kane at 2:37. Strome has 8 goals and 10 assists in his last 21 games.

The Hawks could have had momentum heading into the third period, but Tarasenko and Robert Thomas worked a gorgeous give-and-go to beat Fleury with 49 seconds remaining in the second period. Tarasenko's 16th goal of the season made it 3-1.

As bad as the final score looked, it could have been 7-1 or 8-1 if not for Fleury, who made 26 saves.

The future Hall of Famer fended off a point-blank shot from Tarasenko midway through the first period, a nasty Kyrou wrister with five minutes left in the second, and a Brandon Saad rocket just two minutes into the third.

"I think guys are trying," King said. "They're just limited to what they can do out there. It really shows against a team like this - your faults and where you need to be to compete at that level. I'll address it."

The Hawks (17-24-7) have lost eight of 10 and haven't won back-to-back games since rattling off four straight victories from Jan. 8-15. St. Louis is now 27-14-5 and 18-6-2 at home.

The Hawks are at Winnipeg on Monday before returning home to play eight of their next nine at the United Center.