Lawson Crouse scored his fifth goal in six games and Karel Vejmelka made 31 saves, but the Arizona Coyotes fell 2-1 to the St. Louis Blues at Enterprise Center on Thursday.
Oskar Sundqvist and Robert Thomas scored for the Blues (6-5-1), who won for the third time in four games. Joel Hofer made 19 saves to earn his third win of the season.
Arizona (6-6-1) and St. Louis have two games remaining against each other this season.
Sundqvist opened the scoring at 2:16 of the first period, beating Vejmelka on a broken play after the referee lost an edge and inadvertently took Logan Cooley out of the play. The Blues had an opportunity to extend their lead minutes later with a four-minute powerplay – which included a full, two-minute 5-on-3 – but were unable to convert.
St. Louis finished 0-for-4 with the man advantage in the period, and 0-for-7 on the night, and Coyotes head coach praised Arizona's penalty killers after the game.
"They gave us a chance to win the game. They gave us a chance to be in the game," he said. "They were rock solid."
The Coyotes, meanwhile, finished 1-for-2 on the power play, converting on their first opportunity of the game. Crouse potted his fifth of the season -- and in the last six games -- taking a pass from Clayton Keller before streaking into the circle and rifling it over Hofer's glove to even the score.
