Despite 5-3 win over Blackhawks, Blues eliminated from playoff contention

Matthew DeFranks, St. Louis Post-Dispatch on Apr 11, 2026

Published in Hockey

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Before the Blues could polish off a 5-3 win over the Blackhawks on Saturday afternoon, they were eliminated from playoff contention due to the Kings' win over the Oilers.

Once Los Angeles beat Edmonton, 1-0 (which happened before second intermission of Blues-Blackhawks), it gave the Kings 87 points. The Blues can finish with a maximum of 86 points this season, and would have needed to win out and receive lots of help in order to sneak into the second wild-card spot.

It is the third time in the last four seasons that the Blues have missed the playoffs. Since winning the Stanley Cup in 2019, the Blues have won one postseason series (2022 first round vs. Minnesota).

The win over Chicago brought the Blues' record to 14-5-3 since the Olympic break, which is the best points percentage in the Western Conference during that span.

Jimmy Snuggerud, Alexey Toropchenko, Jordan Kyrou (power play), Cam Fowler and Dalibor Dvorsky scored goals for the Blues on Saturday. Joel Hofer made 32 saves in his 41st start of the season.

Ilya Mikheyev scored twice for the Blackhawks, and Ryan Greene added his 10th goal of the season.

The Blues have three games remaining in their season: vs. Pittsburgh on Monday, vs. Minnesota on Tuesday and at Utah on Thursday.

Too far a climb

In the end, the hole was too big for the Blues to climb out of. St. Louis was 14 points out of a playoff spot at the break, as they owned the second-worst record in the NHL.

The Blues went 11-2-2 in their first 15 games after the break (which included selling Brayden Schenn and Justin Faulk at the trade deadline), and were just four points out of a playoff spot with two games in hand heading into their March 30 game in San Jose.

But a last-minute regulation loss to the Sharks and an overtime loss in Los Angeles crippled the Blues' hopes despite feel-good wins over the Ducks and Avalanche immediately after. With the playoffs once again in the picture, the Blues lost four out of six games before beating the Blackhawks.

Entering Saturday, the Blues had the eighth-worst record in the league, which would give them a 6% chance of landing the No. 1 pick at the draft lottery on May 5.

Top line cookin'

When Snuggerud opened the scoring at 9:26 of the first period with a deflection at the edge of the crease on a Tyler Tucker pass, it marked the continuation of a sizzling run by the top line of Snuggerud, Robert Thomas and Dylan Holloway.

No other Blues forward outside the top line had scored a goal since April 3 in Anaheim until Toropchenko tallied at 4:10 of the second period on a breakaway to tie the game at 2 on Saturday. It was Toropchenko's first goal since Feb. 4 in Dallas, snapping a 20-game goal drought.

Snuggerud now has 44 points on the season, which is the most by a Blues rookie since Patrik Berglund had 47 in 2008-09. Berglund is the only Blues rookie since 1992 with more points than Snuggerud has.

Thomas' point streak did end at seven games, though.

Kyrou ended a long goal drought of his own when he scored on the power play at 12:06 of the second period to give St. Louis a 3-2 lead. He was goalless in the eight previous games before Saturday in Chicago. His last two goals were also empty-netters, meaning he had not beat a goalie since March 8 at Anaheim.

Two for Tucker

Blues defenseman Tucker had two assists on Saturday afternoon, the first time in his career that he had multiple assists in a game. It was just his second multi-point game as he had a goal and an assist last March against Vancouver.

Tucker had the primary assist on Snuggerud's goal and then the secondary assist on Fowler's goal at 17:20 of the second period that put the Blues up 4-2 and ended up as the game-winning goal.

Tucker also had four shots on goal, five attempts, one hit and two giveaways in his 18:45 of ice time.