Blues lament penalties in Game 1 loss to Predators

ST. LOUIS-- The St. Louis Blues rallied to tie Game 1 of the Western Conference Second Round against the Nashville Predators on Wednesday, but their penalties were too much to overcome.
Nashville went 2-for-3 on the power play in a 4-3 win that opened the best-of-7 series, using it to take leads of 1-0 and 3-1.

"First off, penalty kill. We need to be sharper there," St. Louis coach Mike Yeo said. "If it was a 5-on-5 game, if we were just playing that, then I think we were better. They are a disciplined team. We have to do a better job. We gave up a 4-on-3, we gave up a 5-on-3 tonight. It's pretty tough to kill those in succession. Obviously, we've got to, if that's the case, if that's what we're dealt. But we've got to do a better job there."
Game 2 of the best-of-7 series is Friday at Scottrade Center (8 p.m. ET; NBCSN, CBC, TVA Sports).
St. Louis took four minor penalties, including three in the second period. One led to a 4-on-4, then a tripping penalty by Colton Parayko led to a 4-on-3 before Kyle Brodziak was called for slashing to give Nashville a 5-on-3 for 28 seconds.
The Blues killed the 5-on-3, but Filip Forsberg scored to give the Predators a 3-1 lead 4:07 after Parayko got St. Louis and its crowd back into it by scoring to make it 2-1.

Nashville at one point held a 15-2 advantage in shots on goal in the second period, and the Predators at one point won 16 of 18 faceoffs.
"I didn't really see every penalty, so I don't know what they were like, but we took quite a few in a row and got them some momentum, got them feeling the puck, and they scored a couple power-play goals," Blues left wing Jaden Schwartz said. "Just sharpen up there and try to take less next game and take advantage of the power plays we get."
St. Louis did not score on its one power play, which came 2:48 into the game. David Perron's goaltender interference penalty led to Colin Wilson's first-period power-play goal that gave Nashville a 1-0 lead.
The Blues scored twice in the third period (Jaden Schwartz at 6:48, Vladimir Sobotka at 9:22) to tie it 3-3, but Vernon Fiddler gave the Predators the win with a goal with 5:05 remaining.
"I don't think we responded to their first goal really well," Blues defenseman Jay Bouwmeester said. "Kind of gave them some momentum, and the penalties are tough in the second, but [it was a] back-and-forth game. We can look at the third period and some of the time we spent in their end and take some positives. It's one game."