The two goaltenders continued their duel as the teams checked and hit around them, but it took a boarding hit against the Kings to give the road team momentum. Oddly enough, a hit from behind on Alex Pietrangelo by Dwight King gave the Kings a bit of a spark -- or maybe the Blues were discomobulated due to the fact that they were expecting the call to be four minutes or possibly a major. Whatever the excuse, there's no reason that Dustin Brown should be allowed a short handed breakaway and no way that Matt Greene should be in the right place to shove Brown's rebound between Brian Elliott's skate and the post.
The second period was the opposite of the first for the Blues. The momentum and control from the first period did not follow the team to the second period -- they were hazy at best, spending too much time in the Kings' zone. But hey, at least there were hits like this one on Brad Richardson by Chris Stewart:
Unfortunately, that doesn't do much when your power play has been neutered by the Kings' penalty kill for the 16th time this season.
Shots on goal are a close 21-20 in the Blues' favor. More pressure in the third could either get this game to overtime, or the way that Quick has been playing could still get the Blues back to the locker room with a 2-1 opening loss.