Pavel Buchnevich took a pass from Justin Faulk in the left faceoff circle and hammered a shot on goal. Robert Thomas swept the rebound inside the left post and past Vegas goaltender Ilya Samsonov.

Unfortunately, that goal came 6-on-5 with the Blues trailing the Golden Knights 3-1 at home Thursday night and goaltender Joel Hofer pulled for an extra attacker. And it came after the reunited forward tandem of Thomas and Buchnevich struggled for much of the game.

The Blues ended up losing 4-2 to fall to 11-11-1 at Enterprise Center this season and 23-22-4 overall.

They remained stuck on 50 points, behind the Calgary Flames (53 points in three fewer games) and Vancouver Canucks (50 points in two fewer games) for the final playoff slot in the Western Conference.

To finally break the gravitational pull of .500, the Blues will need more from Thomas and Buchnevich.

Thomas has a goal, two assists and a minus-3 rating in his last six games. Buchnevich has no goals, two assists and a minus-4 rating over the same span.

Blues coach Jim Montgomery tried splitting them up, moving Brandon Saad onto a line with Thomas and Jake Neighbours and dropping Buchnevich down with Oskar Sundqvist and Alexey Toropchenko.

After the Blues fell behind the Golden Knights on Thursday, Montgomery reunited Thomas and Buchnevich. They didn鈥檛 get much done until Montgomery pulled Hofer.

鈥淚 thought (Buchnevich) was on top of his game early, so I put them back together just because we need that line to develop the chemistry that the (Brayden) Schenn line has so that we can be really dynamic offensively,鈥� Montgomery said. 鈥淚t just hasn鈥檛 materialized.鈥�

When at their best, Thomas and Buchnevich are excellent two-way players who can match up against top forward lines and score on the counterattack. But they have not been at their best for some time.

鈥淲hen you鈥檙e gifted offensive players like they are 鈥� and they are good 200-foot players as well 鈥� when the offense isn鈥檛 coming . . . your consistency with the way your habits are, your work habits, they deteriorate because you鈥檙e searching for offense,鈥� Montgomery said.

鈥淚鈥檝e seen it over and over, it doesn鈥檛 matter what player it is in the league, when they go through a slump, they kind of lose their work ethic. It鈥檚 just something we鈥檝e got to get back to.鈥�

Thomas offered an honest assessment of his recent play after the loss.

鈥淣ot great,鈥� he said. 鈥淥bviously we鈥檙e struggling to find ways to produce. It鈥檚 bled into your whole game. Just have to find a way to start piecing it back together and get confident. I feel like we鈥檝e made some steps, but (we) just have to find a way to play better and play the way we can.鈥�

The chemistry between Thomas and Buchnevich broke down this month.

鈥淲e鈥檙e searching for offense and it鈥檚 just not coming right now,鈥� Thomas said. 鈥淲e have to find a way to bear down and make the game a little bit simpler and we鈥檒l get out of it. We always have. Whenever you鈥檙e struggling, you find a way to get out of it.鈥�

The Golden Knights outshot the Blues 24-8 while building their 3-1 lead during the first two periods. The Blues scored off the rush, with Jordan Kyrou converting a drop pass from Dylan Holloway.

They suffered near-misses when Neighbours hit the crossbar with a shot off right wing and Sundqvist hit the crossbar with a power-play redirection. They applied more pressure in the third period and cut their deficit to 3-2 when Thomas scored his 6-on-5 goal with 3:26 left.

鈥淲e had some good chances,鈥� Blues defenseman Colton Parayko said. 鈥淭he guys did a good job of giving us a chance to tie it up there.鈥�

The Golden Knights finally put the game away in the closing seconds with an empty-net goal from Tomas Hertl.

鈥淚n the totality of the game, they won a lot of puck battles versus us,鈥� Montgomery said. 鈥淚 think we were something like 23 percent in the second period. And that鈥檚 the period where I thought the game really got away from us.

鈥淚 know the first period wasn鈥檛 great either. But we were winning battles. We had some back turnovers in the first. But in the second period, the third period, the 50-50 puck battles, their puck support and their determination on pucks, stronger on pucks was very evident.鈥�