Blues suffer first shutout loss of the season in 2-0 loss to Dallas

ST. LOUIS — The St. Louis Blues entered Saturday’s game as one of only four teams in the NHL that had not been shut out this season.

That changed when the Blues, who won 17 more faceoffs and took 14 more shots, could not get through Dallas Stars goalie Casey DeSmith and fell 2-0 on Jan. 25.

The Blues missed 15 shots, which turned out to be half the battle for DeSmith, who registered 33 saves.

“We really didn’t show good finish tonight,” Blues head coach Jim Montgomery said. “I think we whiffed on maybe five shots.”

Evgenii Dadonov scored a goal 7:07 into the game and Esa Lindell soon followed suit with a power play goal of his own to establish a 2-0 lead for Dallas midway through the first period.

The Blues are tied with the Buffalo Sabres for giving up the eighth most power play goals in the NHL at 33.

“It’s unfortunate for sure that we’ve given up so many PK goals against,” Blues defenseman Ryan Sutter said. “So we got to be better, all of us, and we will be better.”

Binnington made 17 saves for the Blues, who celebrated Saturday with the induction of the Blues Hall of Fame Class of 2025. St. Louis (23-23-4) dropped to 3-7-1 against Central Division foes and is 11-12-1 at home.

“We’re going to start doing things differently. We have to. We had a great crowd tonight. Our fans were ready to rock,” Montgomery said. “I thought we were going to have a great start and it didn’t materialize.”

The Blues host Vancouver on Monday night. That may not be enough time to make any changes but Montgomery seemed intent on trying to get out of this slump. The Blues and Canucks are tied in the Western Conference wild card standings at 50 points each, five less than the Calgary Flames, who hold the final playoff spot with 55 points.

“We’ve got to disrupt the rhythm somehow so that we have a little more urgency,” Montgomery said.