RECAP: Blackhawks Drop Series Finale Against Blues

It was a night to forget for the Blackhawks on Wednesday in St. Louis, falling 5-2 to the Blues in the fourth and final meeting of the season.

The Blues scored on each of their first four shots of the game over the opening seven minutes -- three times in the opening 4:37 against Petr Mrazek and one against Arvid Soderblom, who replaced him in goal early. Soderblom then made 17 straight stops before a third-period tally from St. Louis put the game away.

"We definitely weren't ready to compete," head coach Luke Richardson said. "They showed their desperation on where they are in the standings. Unfortunately, we didn't give Peter much help giving them an a breakaway and a 2-on-1 to start the game."

Philipp Kurashev got Chicago on the board near the midpoint of the second period, stuffing home a shot off the end boards, his 17th of the season. Landon Slaggert found his first NHL goal late in the contest with a backhand-to-forehand move on a breakaway, just minutes after ringing a partial breakaway shot off the post.

QUICK HITS

• Philipp Kurashev scored after being held off the scoresheet in Sunday's shutout loss to Minnesota. Dating back to the start of March, the forward has 20 points (8G, 12A) and at least one point in 12 of Chicago's last 18 games, never being held pointless for more than a single game at a time and contributing on nearly half of the Blackhawks goals (20 of 47) in that stretch.
• Landon Slaggert scored his first NHL goal on the night and led Chicago with three shots on goal on the night.
• Ryan Donato and MacKenzie Entwistle each assisted Slaggert's goal, and have a pair of assists apiece over their last three games.

THEY SAID IT

• "They came out. They wanted to win. They wanted to score. They got to us right away ... Embarassing first period. We had one shot, maybe three shot attempts. Down 4-0." - Dickinson on start, loss. 
• "Definitely good to get the first one out of the wa. It was a great play by Donato and Twisty [MacKenzie Entwistle] to get me the puck. I wish it would've came in a little different fashion or more of an important game -- disappointed in the outcome, but happy to get the first one out of the way." - Landon Slaggert on first goal, loss to St. Louis. 
• "We've been pretty good most of the year and then there's been a couple of times where we're just not aware. We talk about certain things in our pregame preparation and we just go out there, and we're totally unaware of that. It's unacceptable at this level. Usually, if there's one hiccup, you can kind of rebound. You can't let it repeat two or three times, and be down like that, especially on the road where you don't have a lot of control of the game with line changes and stuff. Unfortunately, going into the second where we decided to keep beat a lot more, we were too far behind." - Head coach Luke Richardson on poor start.

GAME LINKS

• Game Summary
• Full Box Score
• Highlights

WHAT'S NEXT

The Blackhawks return home for their final weekend of home games starting against the Nashville Predators on Friday night at the United Center.

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