In a story that has been seen too often by Stars fans this season, Dallas blew yet another third period lead and outshot the opponent in a loss as they fell to the St. Louis Blues 7-5 in Dallas on Friday night. Dallas outshot the Blues 32 to 21, but it was not enough to win.

Jaden Schwartz recorded a hat trick for the Blues, Patrik Berglund scored twice and Alex Pietrangelo and Zybnek Michalek both added goals.

Valeri Nichushkin played his first game since November 6th, and he recorded an assist in 14:51 of ice time. Jamie Benn scored two goals, and Travis Moen, Tyler Seguin and Antoine Roussel each added a goal. 

Even in a game where both teams scored in the first period, it was a slow start. It took 17:49 for Berglund to score the first goal, assisted by Michalek and David Backes. Two minutes later Moen got the equalizer on a penalty shot with just 11 seconds left in the first. 

It took just 32 seconds of the second for the Blues to open up a 3-1 lead. 15 seconds in Berglund scored his second with assists by Kevin Shattenkirk and Dmitry Jaskin. Schwartz scored his first 17 seconds later with helpers by T.J. Oshie and Jay Bouwmeester. It took just six seconds for the Stars to answer. 

Benn scored his first with Seguin helping, the start of four straight goals for the Stars. Seguin scored next, assisted by Benn at the 10:01 mark of the period. Benn scored again at 14:40, assisted by Seguin and Nichushkin. Less than a minute later at the 15:23 mark Roussel scored, assisted by Cody Eakin and Ryan Garbutt to give Dallas a 5-3 lead. 

But Schwartz scored with 26 seconds remaining in the period to make it 5-4 before the second intermission. 

In the third, Michalek scored 4:44 in to even it up at 5-5. He was assisted by Oshie and Bouwmeester. Pietrangelo scored next at 9:57 to give the Blues the lead back. Kari Lehtonen was pulled from the game after allowing the sixth goal.

Schwartz sealed the deal and his hat trick with an empty netter with 22 seconds for his 28th goal of the season to make it 7-5. 

This game set an NHL record with four goals in a span of 49 seconds. 

This game all but eliminates Dallas from the playoff hunt as they sit at 84 points with four games to play. The maximum number of points they can get is 92, and the Kings and Jets entered tonight with 90 points each, and both were idle tonight. For the Blues, they are deadlocked with the Predators at the top of the Central at 103 points with four games to play. The Blackhawks sit one point behind at 102 and also have four games to play. 

The Stars play at San Jose on Monday, while the Blues have a crucial showdown with the Blackhawks in Chicago on Sunday.