By MATT BECKER
STATS Senior Writer

St. Louis (5-6-2) at Atlanta (6-5-1), 5:00 p.m. EDT

The St. Louis Blues and Atlanta Thrashers are losing for
different reasons, but they are both losing.

The Blues look to shake their offensive woes and avoid dropping
a fifth straight game Sunday against a Thrashers team having
little success keeping its opponents from scoring.

St. Louis (5-6-3) has been getting solid goaltending from Chris
Mason, but the offense has been unable to carry its weight.

The Blues have scored two goals during a four-game skid and have
lost nine of 12, recording two goals or fewer in each of the
defeats. On the season, St. Louis is tied with Nashville for the
fewest goals in the NHL with 31.

St. Louis wasted another stellar performance Saturday by Mason,
who has lost three of his last five outings despite a 1.76
goals-against average in that span. The netminder turned aside
35 shots in a 2-1 shootout loss in Philadelphia, with T.J. Oshie
scoring the lone goal for the Blues.

Although the Blues had another subpar performance, coach Andy
Murray thought his team showed improvement.

"It was a 1-1 hockey game and both teams were going hard to the
net," he said. "Our team battled hard and as long as you keep
working like this, you get rewarded down the road. We'll find a
way to get two points if we keep playing this hard."

While St. Louis has struggled to find the back of the net,
Atlanta (6-6-1) is giving up goals in bunches.

The Thrashers, coming off Saturday's 6-3 loss to the New York
Islanders, have allowed at least four goals in six of seven
games, losing five of those contests.

Atlanta's defense didn't give goalie Ondrej Pavelec much of a
chance Saturday, allowing the Islanders to fire 45 shots on
goal. Pavelec stopped 31 of 36 shots before being removed for
the start of the third period. It was the third time in four
games he faced at least 36 shots.

"It was like we had three or four guys show up and the rest of
the guys didn't," Thrashers coach John Anderson said. "That's
embarrassing. We can't play like that. That's absolutely
embarrassing."

Getting things turned around at Philips Arena might not be easy
for Atlanta.

The Thrashers, who play five of their next six at home, have
lost four straight there since defeating Tampa Bay 6-3 in their
Oct. 3 home opener.

Zach Bogosian, Pavel Kubina, and Christoph Schubert scored
Saturday for the Thrashers, who played their fifth straight game
without leading scorer Ilya Kovalchuk - expected to miss another
two weeks with a broken bone in his right foot.

Kovalchuk had two scores in a 4-2 win at St. Louis on Oct. 8.
Pavelec stopped 29 shots in that game while Mason made 18 saves
for the Blues.

Atlanta backup Johan Hedberg, who made eight saves on nine
chances Saturday, is 4-2-0 with a 1.98 GAA and one shutout in
six career starts against the Blues, but hasn't faced them since
2005, while playing for Dallas.