TAMPA, Fla. — If the Blues keep up these results, they might not have a very merry Christmas.

With a 3-1 loss to the Lightning on Thursday night, the Blues lost their fourth game in their past five tries and dropped below .500 for the first time since Jim Montgomery pulled them up from three games under. St. Louis has two more games before the league-wide Christmas break.

Pavel Buchnevich scored for the Blues, as Joel Hofer relieved Jordan Binnington in goal after Binnington was pulled in the second period. Anthony Cirelli, Nick Perbix and Gage Goncalves scored for the Lightning.

Combined with Tuesday's 4-1 loss to the Devils, the Blues (15-16-3) have lost two straight games in regulation for the first time under Montgomery. Thursday was the third time in the past four games that the Blues scored just one goal.

St. Louis finishes a back-to-back in Florida on Friday night.

Binnington pulled

Montgomery yanked starting goaltender Binnington with 6:27 remaining in the second period after he allowed his third goal of the night, this one a shot from the dot by Goncalves for his first career NHL goal.

Hofer replaced Binnington, who was pulled for the first time this season. Before Thursday night, the only time this season that the Blues pulled their starter was in Ottawa, where Hofer allowed five goals before he was taken out.

The Goncalves goal gave the Lightning a 3-1 lead and killed any momentum that the Blues generated with Buchnevich’s goal a minute and 18 seconds earlier that cut the Tampa Bay lead to one. Buchnevich dunked his ninth goal of the season on the back door, smashing a pass from Robert Thomas after the top line was set up in the offensive zone by an extended shift from the fourth line.

Alexandre Texier, Mathieu Joseph and Zack Bolduc held the puck in the zone long enough to tire out the Lightning and allow the Blues to outchange the weary Tampa skaters.

Just 3:42 into the second period, the Blues allowed Perbix to stake the Lightning to a 2-0 lead when he drove to the net untouched and finished off a chain of quick, accurate passes from Brayden Point and Nikita Kucherov. As the Lightning entered the zone, both Colton Parayko and Nathan Walker shifted towards Point, and Perbix raced past Alexey Toropchenko and beat Parayko to the front of the net.

Walker might have had the save of the night with 2:51 left in the second period, as his last-ditch effort on the edge of the crease prevented a certain Point goal.

Another night, another league

Blues defenseman Tyler Tucker received a rough welcome back to the NHL on Thursday night, as St. Louis allowed a goal on his second shift of the season, when Cirelli scored at 5:14 of the first period to give the Lightning a 1-0 lead.

Cirelli drove the middle of the ice on the rush and collected a pass from Conor Geekie in front of the net, then lifted the puck over Binnington’s pad. It was Cirelli’s 13th goal of the season.

Cirelli was left all alone when both defensemen — Tucker and Scott Perunovich — surfed to the right side of the ice to defend Brandon Hagel’s zone entry. At the same time, Buchnevich joined them instead of marking Cirelli coming down the middle of the ice.

Tucker was playing in his third game in three nights, having suited up for AHL affiliate Springfield in Charlotte on both Tuesday and Wednesday. He was in the lineup on Thursday night because Philip Broberg was out due to an illness.

The Blues outshot the Lightning, 10-7, in the first period and generated a pair of glorious chances on the rush. More than six minutes into the game, Zack Bolduc spotted Nathan Walker with a stretch pass from his own zone that sprung Walker on a partial breakaway. When the Blues were killing Brayden Schenn’s cross-checking penalty, Robert Thomas led a 2-on-1 break with Buchnevich after Buchnevich’s poke check in the neutral zone freed the puck.

Lightning goaltender Andrei Vasilevskiy stopped both Thomas and Walker.

Schenn drops ‘em

Blues captain Schenn got in his second fight of the season, dropping the mitts with Lightning defenseman Emil Lilleberg with 1:02 remaining in the second period. Schenn responded to a neutral-zone hip check by Lilleberg before the pair became combatants.

Schenn was revved up on Tuesday as well, as he attempted to coax Devils defenseman Jonas Siegenthaler into a fight following Siegenthaler's trip into the boards of Jake Neighbours.

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