The sloppy and inconsistent play of the second period continued throughout the third period, as the Blues were unable to equalize game one against the Los Angeles Kings. If the second period was just sloppy play and some apathy, then the third period was penalty ridiculousness. Four minutes of a penalty kill is bad enough, but adding two more right afterwards? That is not a recipe for success.
The penalty that began the steamroll of PKs was this high stick on Dustin Brown. Both refs missed it and had to be informed by a linesman of the hit. Alex Pietrangelo never returned to the game from his hit by Dwight King, who only got two minutes for boarding, and then the refs miss this high stick. Questionable refereeing usually doesn't get rewarded by being moved up a round, does it? Turns out that the ref that's missing all the calls is Stephen Walkmon, he of the Torres on Hossa hit fame.
Promptly after killing all four minutes of a LA powerplay, Kevin Shattenkirk got in trouble by clearing the puck over the glass and out of play.
The icing on the game was an empty net goal by Dustin Penner that was just a clear that took a good bounce off of the boards -- Brian Elliott, like Jonathan Quick at the other end of the ice, was outstanding, but as predicted the scoring came down to flukey bounces and special teams breakdowns... just not the special teams people expected.
The Blues dropped round one's opener to the San Jose Sharks as well, so there's not much to get worried about -- except that game was lost in double OT and the Blues played a full 100 minutes. This whole "the first period'll suffice!" thing just won't do for the rest of this series.