Blues suffer 4-1 loss to Sharks at home

ST. LOUIS -- Owen Nolan downplayed any notion of a rivalry between the San Jose Sharks and the St. Louis Blues.

"It's just two good competitive teams playing hard hockey," he said. "Both teams are built similarly with a lot of checkers. It makes for an entertaining game."

Goalie Evgeni Nabokov stopped 32 shots, leading the badly outshot Sharks to a 4-1 victory Monday night.

The Blues outshot the Sharks 13-4 in the third period and 33-21 for the game.

"We owed it to ourselves after our performance against Pittsburgh," said Nolan about a 4-1 loss Saturday to the Penguins. "I think everyone has it in their head what it takes to win and if we don't pay the price, we're not going to win."

Vincent Damphousse, Brad Stuart, Marco Sturm and Patrick Marleau scored for San Jose. Scott Mellanby beat Nabokov on the power play to spoil the shutout bid with 3:59 remaining.

Damphousse put in a rebound for a power-play goal at 12:24 of the first period for a 1-0 lead.

St. Louis ranks 28th in the league in killing penalties. The Blues have allowed 12 power play goals in 11 home games.

Goals by Stuart and Sturm in the second period gave San Jose a 3-0 lead and knocked out Barrasso.

Barrasso, 1-4 with St. Louis since signing as a free agent on Nov. 4. He faced only 14 shots.