The St. Louis Blues are still fighting despite having been eliminated from the playoff hunt in the NHL. A third period rally came up short in a 6-5 loss at Chicago. 18 year veteran Keith Tkachuk is retiring after the last two games.

As far as Tkachuk, the 38 year old is calling it quits after 18 seasons. He was the first American-born player to lead the NHL in goals for a season. That came in 1996-97 when he played with Phoenix and scored 52 goals that year. He ranks 30th on the NHL all-time list with 538 career goals. He was a five-time All Star with his last appearance coming in 2009.

Last night, the Blues got off to a quick start when David Perron scored 4:22 into the game. Then things got out of hand as the Blackhawks scored four goals in the first in a span of 3:08 which came from goals from Duncan Keith and Ben Eager just :56 apart with the fourth goal capped on a short handed goal from Kris Versteeg after a change in net from Chris Mason to Ty Conklin.

The Blues trailed 6-1 when Roman Polak scored late in the second period. St. Louis kept the heat on Antii Niemi scoring three goals in the third, with the final goal coming with :31 seconds left on a penalty shot goal from Brad Boyes who missed two big opportunities earlier in the third to make it a one goal game.