ST. LOUIS — For the last two months, the Blues have found themselves in games like Friday’s against Carolina.

Clinging onto playoff hopes. Scoreboard-watching the Golden Knights. Hoping to stave off elimination by poaching another victory.

By losing 5-2 to the Hurricanes, it’s going to be tougher for the final two games to hold the same stakes. St. Louis used what little margin for error it had on Friday night, and can be eliminated with just one more win by Vegas in its last four games, including a late one Friday against Minnesota.

Hurricanes defenseman Jaccob Slavin scored the game-winning goal with 12:07 remaining in the third period, driving to the backpost during 4-on-4 play to give Carolina its first lead of the game. On his previous shift, Slavin drew a high-sticking penalty on Brayden Schenn that negated a Blues power play.

Jake Guentzel’s emtpy-netter with 2:40 remaining sealed the game for Carolina, and he added another with 49.9 seconds left.

Zack Bolduc scored for the third straight game for the Blues. Jordan Kyrou continued his own hot streak with a power-play goal. Jordan Binnington made 36 saves.

St. Louis entered the day three points behind Vegas for the last wild card spot in the Western Conference, and the Golden Knights had one more game remaining than the Blues.

“It’s business as usual for us,” Blues interim coach Drew Bannister said before the game. “We’ve been playing in these games, meaningful games, for two months, six weeks, however (long) it’s been. I feel like we’ve played really good hockey against top teams. That hasn’t been an issue for us.”

The Blues have two games remaining in the regular season: Sunday afternoon vs. Seattle, and Wednesday night at Dallas.

Missed chances get reversed

A pair of missed opportunities directly resulted in Hurricanes goals on Friday night.

In the last minute of the first period, Kasperi Kapanen missed the net wide on a breakaway attempt, allowing the puck to rim around to the neutral zone. Andrei Svechnikov collected it there in transition and eventually set up Jordan Martinook, who stepped around Zach Dean and wired a shot past Jordan Binnington.

Martinook’s goal tied the game at 1.

In the second period, end to end action again resulted in the Hurricanes tying the game. On one end, Pavel Buchnevich drove the net and had an open cage to score into but couldn’t get a shot off. On the other end, Seth Jarvis cut to the middle of the ice to beat Binnington with a laser.

“We’re going to have to compete for our space,” Bannister said. “We’re going to have to support each other. We’re going to have to simplify our game. We might just have to chip a lot of pucks off the wall, and make sure that we’re supporting and get pucks behind their D.”

The Blues had two more prime chances to score in the first period that Frederik Andersen stopped. The most impressive one was on Zach Dean, robbing him of his first career NHL goal. Dean got a shot on Andersen, then collected the rebound at the side of the net and attempted to lift it over Andersen, who gloved it.

With four minutes left in the first, Brandon Saad had a chance on a 3 on 1 rush but Andersen made the save going to his right.

Midgame signing

During the first intermission, the Blues announced that they signed forward Dylan Peterson to a two-year, entry-level contract. The deal will begin in the 2024-25 season, and he will report to Springfield on an amateur tryout for the remainder of this season.

Peterson, 22, spent the last four seasons playing at Boston University, but his Terriers team lost to Denver in overtime on Thursday in the Frozen Four. Peterson, a senior, had eight goals and 12 assists in 35 games this season.

The Blues had until Aug. 15 to sign Peterson to an entry-level contract or else he would have become an unrestricted free agent. At 6-4 and 192 pounds, Peterson is a big forward that is capable of driving plays wide with his skating.

Peterson was originally a third-round pick by St. Louis in 2020.

Thomas hits milestone

In assisting on both Bolduc and Kyrou’s goals on Friday night, Robert Thomas ran his season total to 60 helpers, becoming the first Blue in 30 years to reach that figure.

The last player for St. Louis to do so was Craig Janney with 68 assists in 1993-94. Thomas became the sixth Blue to hit the milestone, joining Bernie Federko (eight times), Adam Oates (twice), Janney (twice), Doug Gilmour and Blake Dunlop.

Carolina dressed an undermanned lineup on Friday night, as it was without Jordan Staal, Teuvo Teravainen, Brett Pesce and Jalen Chatfield. The Hurricanes have already clinched a playoff spot, and entered the night three points behind the Rangers (with one game in hand) for first place in the Metropolitan Division.

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