Mackenzie powers Panthers past Blues 3-1

The Florida Panthers rode two unassisted goals by fourth line plugger Derek MacKenzie for a tough-fought 3-1 win on the road against the St. Louis Blues.

The St. Louis Blues are rolling along with the second-best record in the Western Conference and look to extend their point streak to six games when they host the Florida Panthers on Tuesday. The Blues are 0-4 in their last 4 games following a win and are 0-4 in their last 4 after allowing 2 goals or less in their previous game while the under is 5-0 in Blues last 5 games playing on 2 days rest.

Florida is 2-0 on this five-game trip that continues Thursday against the Predators.

3, St. Louis, Backes 6 (Fabbri, Parayko), 12:52.

On the ensuing possession, MacKenzie picked off the puck from Steve Ott and quickly fired a wrist shot that beat Allen a mere 13 seconds after Pirri’s goal.

MacKenzie gave the Panthers the two-goal cushion back later in the period, intercepting another loose puck at center ice and rushing in on Allen.

Allen stayed in the game for a time with Blues’ coach Ken Hitchcock pulling him during the second intermission and going with Brian Elliott in the third. The 34-year-old has three goals and seven points in 24 games this season.

“Guys were making fun of him a little bit after his breakaway that he shot right in (Allen’s) chest, but after that, he turned it up to beast mode and buried a couple there, ” said Florida goalie Roberto Luongo, who made 29 saves. He missed the final 10 games last season and underwent back surgery.

The team is only saying that Bjugstad, 23, suffered some sort of upper body injury during Monday’s practice in St. Louis.

“We’ve been kind of hanging around and good teams have to put streaks like this together, ” MacKenzie said.

With Bjugstad out, Dave Bolland – scratched for the past three games – centered Florida’s third line.

“Obviously, I came to the bench and was pretty disappointed”, he said. “So we had a good team effort again tonight”. “I thought that could’ve broken the game open and get us some momentum, but I never know how they go in, they just went in today”.