TORONTO - Jonathan Bernier came back to try and help end a losing streak. By the time the goaltender and the Toronto Maple Leafs left Air Canada Centre, they were out of a playoff spot. Bernier returned from a five-game absence and did his best to keep the Leafs in it against the St. Louis Blues. But a plethora of other mistakes against one of the NHLs top teams Tuesday night ultimately resulted in a 5-3 defeat, their sixth in a row. "Its a hard league," Blues goaltender Ryan Miller said of the Leafs struggles. "Youve got to keep it all together." Things have seemingly fallen apart in just under two weeks time. The loss, coupled with the Blue Jackets beating the Red Wings and the Capitals picking up a point against the Los Angeles Kings, dropped the Leafs out of a wild-card position. Though all four teams have 80 points, Columbus and Detroit held the wild-card spots at the end of the night, ahead of the Capitals and then the Leafs because of games played. Not long ago Toronto was second in the Atlantic Division, and now it looks like the season is slipping away. "Certainly were afraid of letting it slip away," said winger Joffrey Lupul, whose early goal was the first time Toronto opened the scoring in eight games. "The whole year weve thought we were a playoff team, and we still believe that now. ... Theres reason for concern, but its not completely time to panic. Were still right there." Winger James van Riemsdyk, whose goal at 15:54 of the third period cut the Leafs deficit to a goal, said that the team has "100 per cent" faith that things can turn around with just eight games remaining. "We have a lot of confidence in our abilities and a belief in ourselves and believe in the guys in the room," van Riemsdyk said. "This thing is obviously far from over." At some point the Leafs (36-30-8) must show that instead of just talking about it. They were unable to do that against the Blues, who passed the Boston Bruins for the top spot in the league thanks to a hat trick from David Backes and one goal apiece from T.J. Oshie and former Leafs forward Alex Steen. Though Bernier allowed four goals, his return from a groin injury was more memorable for some of the big saves he made among his 44. The 25-year-old No. 1 goalie gave his team a chance, but too much continued to go wrong in front of and around the net. Lupul said a good team is supposed to bail its goalie out and vice-versa. That didnt happen for James Reimer in the first five games of this slide, and that continued with Bernier. "When you get in a slide like this its easy to start pin-pointing individuals, which is fair, but as a group we look at it like, if theres a mistake made by someone, someone else steps up and makes a play for them," Lupul said. "And we just havent been doing quite enough of that right now." Captain Dion Phaneuf hesitated twice to clear the puck on a late-first-period penalty kill before the Blues forced a turnover and scored, then was beaten by Steen in front of the net on the fourth goal St. Louis scored. Phaneuf was not made available to speak to reporters, leaving coach Randy Carlyle to answer for some of the defencemans poor play. "He and (Cody) Franson have been the top pairing on our blue line, as far as the offensive side of it, all year," Carlyle said. "In tonights situation, he had a rough night." Phaneuf could be blamed for at least two goals against, but he wasnt alone in having a rough night against the Blues (49-16-7), who showed early and often why theyre a Stanley Cup contender. "It was a 5-3 game where I think we couldve scored 10 goals tonight," Blues coach Ken Hitchcock said in a nod to Bernier. "We had so many scoring opportunities, and I thought for the most part until we got careless and started to get fancy around the net instead of burying it that we were really playing one of our top games." During the first period, St. Louis hemmed the Leafs in their own end, putting 23 shots on net, a season high for Toronto. "I dont know," Lupul said. "We couldnt break their cycle, we couldnt get the puck." Had the Leafs managed to go into the first intermission tied 1-1, as Carlyle pointed out, they would have been fortunate. But Phaneufs mistake led to a power-play goal by Backes with 32.3 seconds left. Backes had to beat Bernier, too, but he did that twice and added an empty netter for his second career hat trick. "Theres something about this barn and this stage," Backes said. "Theres obviously a special thing about being in Toronto. The buzz in the air and everyones talking about the Leafs. Every establishments got a neon Leafs sign of some sort. This is kind of the Mecca for hockey here in Toronto." Hockey Mecca includes many more people panicking even after the Leafs lost to a much better team in the Blues. Van Riemsdyk repeatedly pointed out that the Blues are "a heck of a hockey team." Theres no disputing that, only that the Leafs couldnt find a way to end their skid. Bernier knows nothing should have to be said after this one. "If were missing motivation, at this time of the year everyone should have some," he said. "Obviously we knew it was not going to be easy. Thats a good team out there — theyre first and they showed it tonight." The Leafs showed something in trimming a three-goal deficit to one in the third period. And while thats the biggest thing theyll take from Tuesday night, its not nearly enough with the frustration building up. "Youve got to try and manage that," van Riemsdyk said. "If you play in a frustrated type of way youre no good out there. Weve got to continue to learn from things and look at the positives and kind of go from there." One positive Lupul sees is two games ahead at the Philadelphia Flyers on Friday night and then back home against the Red Wings on Saturday night. "You win those two games, all of a sudden things look a lot different," he said. Until the Leafs manage to do that, things look bleak. NOTES: With Bernier back, the Leafs sent goaltender Drew MacIntyre back to the AHLs Toronto Marlies. ... Defenceman Paul Ranger was scratched for the third straight game with a neck injury. Taylor Gabriel Jersey . The Kings paraded the Stanley Cup through downtown Los Angeles on Monday to celebrate their second NHL title in three seasons. Cody Parkey Bears Jersey . Bradwell was scheduled to become a free agent Tuesday. Born and raised in Toronto, Bradwell is entering his sixth CFL season, with all six played for his hometown Argonauts. http://www.authenticfootballshopbears.com/c-104-bears-james-daniels-jersey.aspx . After Andrew Romine served up two monster home runs in the inning, Tigers manager Brad Ausmus said he thought Romine was one of the bright spots on the night, showing just how bad the series opener against the last-place Minnesota Twins went for the Tigers. Roquan Smith Jersey . City, fielding a depleted team having already qualified, was twice pegged back by the plucky Czech champions but substitute Negredo tapped home in the 78th minute and Dzekos header made sure of victory in the 89th. The result kept City three points behind Bayern Munich ahead of their meeting in Germany in two weeks. Joel Iyiegbuniwe Jersey .DeMarco Murray got his 20th carry late in the fourth quarter with a 10-point lead, not long after Dez Bryant made his final catch of the day.Sure enough, a 44-17 win over Washington didnt change Dallas post-season position.MEMPHIS, Tenn. -- Reggie Jackson came off the bench and outscored teammates Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook by himself. The Oklahoma City Thunder needed every point from their top reserve to win yet another overtime game against Memphis. Jackson scored a personal playoff-best 32 points, and the Thunder beat the Grizzlies 92-89 Saturday night, tying up their first-round Western Conference series at two apiece. "Reggie played an outstanding basketball game," Thunder coach Scott Brooks said. "He was able to attack and finish around the rim like hes done all year, and I knew he would bounce back ... Hes done a great job of coming in and giving us that lift offensively when we needed it as a sixth man." The Thunder sure needed him to avoid going back home in a 3-1 hole after three straight overtime games. Jackson had only scored 15 points combined in this series, but the guard shook off his shooting woes by hitting 11 of 16. Durant and Russell Westbrook, who struggled through their worst scoring game of the series with a combined 11 of 45 and 15 points apiece. He said a few made layups finally got him going. Jackson said Durant and Westbrook were allowing him to play. "They told me to just keep going and be aggressive," Jackson said. The Thunder blew a 14-point lead with Memphis, and the Grizzlies blew a third straight fourth-quarter lead themselves. Jackson tied up Memphis with five straight points in the final minute of regulation, and he hit all six free throws in overtime as the Thunder survived an extra period with seven lead changes. "Theyre running plays for him with Durant and Westbrooks spaced out," Memphis coach Dave Joerger said. "If youre going down, my hats off to them, both guys did a great job, and Reggie Jackson did a great job just being in attack mode." Durants two free throws with 1:02 left in overtime put the Thunder ahead to stay. "One of the things I was pleased about was the way Russ and KD took a backseat tonight and let Reggie take over," Thunder centre Kendrick Perkins said. "That says a lot about them also." Game 5 is Tuesday night back in Oklahoma City. Mike Conley missed a 26-footer just before the buzzer that could have forced a second extra period. Oklahoma Citys Serge Ibaka also blocked a Tony Allen shot with 2.7 seconds left in regulation to keep the Thunder alive for overtime. The Thunder won for only the second time in seven playoff games in Memphis, and this was just their second in eight overtimes with the Grizzlies since the start of the 2010-11 season.dddddddddddd Oklahoma City also snapped Memphis franchise-record 15-game winning streak. Ibaka added 12 points for Oklahoma City. The Thunder outrebounded Memphis 58-49 and got 12 offensive rebounds in the fourth quarter and overtime combined. Marc Gasol led Memphis with 23 points and 11 rebounds. Allen had 14 points and 13 rebounds, Conley had 14 points and Zach Randolph added 11. Gasol said he expects the Grizzlies will be more aggressive with Jackson in the next game. But he also noted they have to do better against the likes of Ibaka and Caron Butler. "Those are the guys that are going to be the difference in the series," Gasol said. The Grizzlies blew a fourth-quarter lead for a third straight game. They last led 87-86 after Conley hit a step-back jumper. Then Duran hit two free throws with 1:02 left to put the Thunder ahead to stay, and Jackson sealed it with four free throws in the final 12.2 seconds. With NBA commissioner Adam Silver and former Oklahoma and Dallas Cowboys coach Barry Switzer on hand, the Thunder got back to passing the ball and shooting better with the exception of Durant and Westbrook. Oklahoma City took its biggest lead of the game at 64-50 on a layup by Durant with 26.3 seconds left in the third. Then the Grizzlies put together their best stretch with a 15-5 spurt with Memphis coach Dave Joerger going with a small group of shooters including Mike Miller, Beno Udrih and Conley. Miller hit a 3-pointer that brought fans to their feet, and Allens layup off his own miss with 3:55 gave the Grizzlies their first lead since 20-18 early in the second quarter. But they couldnt hold the lead on a day where former owner Michael Heisley died at the age of 77. After Allen and Gasol hit jumpers pushing Memphis lead to 80-75, Jackson hit a 3 and then drove the lane to tie it up at 80 with 30.6 seconds to go. Notes: Derek Fisher played in his 244th career playoff game, tying him with Robert Horry for most post-season appearances in NBA history. ... Heisley was remembered with a moment of silence before tipoff. ... 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