Montreal Canadiens Alex Galchenyuk (R) celebrates his first period goal with teammates against the St. Louis Blues at the Scottrade Center in St. Louis on Tuesday. (UPI)

By Tom Timmermann/St. Louis Post-Dispatch (TNS)


Falling behind is something the Blues have gotten very accustomed to lately, though that hasn’t necessarily made them any better at dealing with it.
The Blues trailed early once again on Tuesday night and then further way behind later and there’s only so much coming-back any team can do. More significantly than being down early is that they once again were behind when the final math was done. The Blues lost to Eastern Conference-leading Montreal 5-2, to finish a fairly unspectacular four-game homestand with a 1-3 record, netting two fewer points from those games than they got on the two-game road trip that preceded it.
They now spend most of the next month on the road, which can’t be any worse.
The Blues had lost just four of their first 26 games in regulation, but they have lost four of their past six. With Nashville winning on Tuesday, the Blues are nine points back in the Central Division with 22 games to play. Jake Allen had his six-game winning streak snapped and lost for the first time in 2015.
The Blues gave up three goals in the second period, one on a shot from a tight angle, another on a two-on-one after an ill-advised pass and the final one on a bad-timing breakaway. If the idea was to hold down an opponent’s odd-man rushes, the Blues didn’t get that done.
The Blues did generate more offense with their rejiggered lines, with 29 shots on goal, more than in either of the previous two games, but if chances were up, goals remained down and the power play was shut out for the third time in the past four games.
Montreal was outshot in the first period 7-6 but had the better chances and had the only goal. With 6:38 to go in the first, P.K. Subban, whose brother Malcolm lost to the Blues as a goalie for Boston on Friday, took a shot from the blue line that Alex Galchenyuk got the blade of his stick on to redirect past Allen for the goal.
Falling behind is nothing new for the Blues, who have given up the first goal in their past eight home games and have scored just one goal in the first period of the past seven home games. So playing from behind is nothing new for them, but that doesn’t mean they’ve gotten any better at it.
Montreal went up 2-0 just over three minutes into the second period. Galchenyuk got the puck low in the circle to Allen’s right and found a narrow gap between Allen’s arm and the near post for his second goal of the game and one Allen certainly wishes he had another crack at.
The Blues got one back less than three minutes later at the end of some nice passes. After another penalty to Subban had just ended, Alexander Steen fed T.J. Oshie up high, who passed to Vladimir Tarasenko down low, who this time used his considerable patience to hold the puck until the defense came to him and sent the puck to David Backes in front of the goal to score.
It was the 20th goal of the season for Backes, who has scored 20 in each of the past four full NHL seasons. It’s the fifth time in his career he’s had at least 20 goals. The Blues threatened a few times to tie but couldn’t beat Carey Price and Montreal scored twice in 1:17 to shift the game the other way. With the teams playing four on four after roughing penalties on Ryan Reaves and Montreal’s Michael Bournival, Tarasenko tried to leave a drop pass for Jay Bouwmeester, but missed. Brendan Gallagher got the puck on a two-on-one and kept it himself, finally beating Allen for the goal.
The penalties ended just as Montreal got control of the puck, and, since it was the second period, Bournival came out of the penalty box behind the play. Galchenyuk flipped the puck ahead to Bournival, who was in alone on Allen with Reaves in pursuit and he went into the top right corner for his third goal of the season.
That was not well received by the sellout crowd on a Tuesday night, and the Blues cut the gap to two with 2:15 to go in the period. Oshie took a shot from just inside the blue line that caught a Montreal stick and Backes set a nice screen on Price for the goal.
Hitchcock swapped Alexander Steen and Dmitrij Jaskin in the third period. With 4:20 to go in the period, Jaskin was called for cross checking, and seven seconds into the power play, Gallagher scored his second goal of the game.