Nikolai Khabibulin made 16 saves, and Jonathan Toews, Samuel Pahlsson and Colin Fraser scored for the Blackhawks, who beat St. Louis 3-1 on Wednesday night and snapped the Blues’ five-game winning streak.
Khabibulin lost a bid for his second shutout when St. Louis’ Jeff Woywitka scored a power-play goal with 1.5 seconds remaining. The Blues finished 2-2-2 against the Blackhawks and will try to bounce back at Detroit Thursday night.
St. Louis remained in ninth place in the Western Conference, one point behind Anaheim and Nashville at the playoff cutoff. The Blues were last in the Western Conference on Feb. 18, but have gone 13-5-2 since then to climb back into playoff contention. St. Louis’ Chris Mason stopped 27 shots in his 28th straight start. He made several tough, point-blank saves to keep the game close.
Chicago outshot St. Louis 11-3 in the first period, and jumped ahead 2-0 after 20 minutes on goals by Toews and Pahlsson.