Panthers push past Allen, Blues

ST. LOUIS -- St. Louis Blues goalie Jake Allen was pulled in the second period of a 7-4 loss to the Florida Panthers at Scottrade Center on Tuesday.
Allen, who was starting for the second time since Dec. 29, is 1-8-0 in his past nine starts and has a 3.39 goals-against average and .896 save percentage. He allowed five goals in a second straight start and 28 in those nine.

"Jake's going through a hard time right now," Blues coach Mike Yeo said. "Let's be honest. I think he had a good start to the game and next thing you know we're doing some things that put him in a bad position."
WATCH: [All Panthers vs. Blues highlights]
Vincent Trocheck scored two goals and had an assist, Jonathan Huberdeau and Aleksander Barkov each had a goal and two assists, and James Reimer made 26 saves for Florida (18-18-6), which won once on a four-game road trip (1-2-1).

It's the first time in seven games the Panthers have scored more than three goals.
"I said it before the game that we've been struggling to put pucks in the net, and when you do that the margin for error is very, very small, and tonight, even though we made some mistakes, we scored enough goals to support the win," Panthers coach Bob Boughner said.
Paul Stastny and Vladimir Tarasenko each had a goal and an assist for St. Louis (26-17-3), which will be off for six days.
The Panthers scored three times in 4:14 of the second period to take a 5-3 lead. Radim Vrbata tied it 3-3 at 12:23, Huberdeau put Florida up 4-3 at 15:55, and Trocheck made it 5-3 at 16:37. Allen was pulled and replaced by Carter Hutton.

"Obviously the second period, we know that that's not the level that Jake can play at," Yeo said. "Going into every game expecting Jake to play what we saw last year. That's who he is, but we also have to help him out too. That was disturbing tonight."
The Blues took a 2-0 lead in the first period on goals by Stastny at 48 seconds and Colton Parayko at 8:05. The Panthers tied the game 2-2 on goals by Aaron Ekblad at 9:14 and Barkov at 16:57.

"I think it was quite a bit of a lackadaisical start, but after that, I think once we kind of woke up a little bit, it was a hard-fought effort," Trocheck said. "Everybody came together, a couple big [penalty] kills. We just played the right way tonight."
Tarasenko gave the Blues a 3-2 lead at 4:17 of the second period.
Colton Sceviour scored on a shorthanded breakaway at 13:02 of the third period to make it 6-3, and Tage Thompson scored at 17:19 to make it 6-4. Trocheck's empty-net goal with 2:04 remaining made it 7-4.
"I thought they played harder than us tonight, plain and simple," Blues forward Alexander Steen said. "They worked harder for 60 minutes, they deserved (to win)."

Goal of the game

Ekblad's backhand goal at 9:14 of the first period.

Save of the game

Reimer's glove save on Stastny with 5:39 remaining in the third period.

Highlight of the game

Tarasenko's goal off a wrist shot at 4:17 of the second period.

They said it

"I liked the way we played. I liked our bite tonight. I think we were down 2-0 and we never thought we were out of it. We put our heads down and we worked hard. We grinded, we were physical and you know we showed up. We had a good response, and I'm proud of the team and the effort they showed. It's not an easy building against a good hockey team to get two points out of here." -- Panthers coach Bob Boughner
"The reality is we have to look at how we played tonight. Obviously we have our break now and maybe [it will] be a good time to step back, have a look at things and then when we come back we'll be ready to work." -- Blues forward Alexander Steen
"I think sometimes we panic too much and today we were down two goals and we came back, and that's what the team needs to do. I think it was a character win, and that's what we've got to do more often." -- Panthers forward Jonathan Huberdeau

Need to know

Vrbata returned after missing five games with an illness. ... Trocheck's assist was his 100th in the NHL. ... Stastny has 18 points (nine goals, nine assists) in 16 games against Florida.

What's next

Panthers: Host the Calgary Flames on Friday (7:30 p.m. ET; FS-F, SNF, NHL.TV)
Blues:At the Toronto Maple Leafs on Jan. 16 (7 p.m. ET; TSN4, FS-MW, NHL.TV)