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. Carter Hart Flyers Jersey . Henderson (20-3) received winning scores of 48-47 and 49-46, and the other judge scored it 48-47 for Thomson (20-6). The announcement drew boos from the United Center crowd. "Train this hard for this long, its such a long camp and I see my title shot disappear," said Thomson, who fought most of the fight with a broken right hand. Nolan Patrick Jersey . After a first half in which he thought "the lid was on the basket," the Toronto Raptors coach watched his squad mount a second half surge to defeat the Cleveland Cavaliers 98-91. http://www.nhlflyersproauthentic.com/sha...-hockey-jersey/. It all would have been for naught, however, had it not been for some clutch shooting in the fourth quarter by Kobe Bryant and a couple of equally critical hustle plays by Derek Fisher and Pau Gasol in the final minutes. Travis Sanheim Jersey . Future Hall of Famer Ricky Ray is in his prime and back for a third season in double blue. The 34-year old was magnificent in 2013, throwing for just under 2,900 yards despite missing eight games, tossing an impressive 21 touchdowns against just two interceptions, completing 66 per cent of his passes in the process. Eric Lindros Flyers Jersey . -- The Oakland Raiders expect to have starting right tackle Tony Pashos back for Sundays game against the Houston Texans. ORLANDO, Fla. -- At this point in the season, the Cleveland Cavaliers are hoping to make one last run at the playoffs and the Orlando Magic are looking for luck in the NBA draft lottery. Both improved their chances of reaching those goals Wednesday night as the Cavaliers beat the Magic 119-98 behind 26 points from Dion Waiters and 20 each from Spencer Hawes and Tristan Thompson. The easy win moved the Cavaliers within two games of New York and Atlanta for the eighth and final playoff spot in the Eastern Conference. The Cavs play at Atlanta Friday night. "This was a big game for us, but every game is big because of the position weve put ourselves in," Cleveland coach Mike Brown said. "There is nothing tricky that we have to do. We just have to out and play hard and give ourselves a chance." Waiters shot 10 for 15 from the field, including 3 for 3 on 3-pointers. "Weve still got a chance, we just need to take full advantage of it," he said. "We came in knowing we should get a win, but every game is hard. We have no choice at this point. We control our own destiny. Everybody knows what is at stake. We just have to stay focused." It helped the Cavaliers that All-Star point guard Kyrie Irving returned with a thump in his step after missing the last eight games with a torn bicep muscle. Irving had 17 points, eight assists and six rebounds in a seemless transition from the bench to the court. "Kyrie came in and got right in step with us," Brown said. "He helped us get the ball up the floor quickly and get into our attack. He gave us another weapon with a very high skill level." The Magic had little to be satisfied with other than solidifying their lottery spot with the third-worst record in the NBA. The Magic gave up 70 points in the first half, the best half all season for Cleveland and the most points Orlando has allowed in a half this year. "There is going to be a game in the course of the year where you just dont have it and when its coupled with a team like the Cavs who had it ... it just wasnt a good mix," Magic coach Jacque Vaughn said. "Some days, its just not your day." The Magic placed only one starter, Maurice Harkless, in douuble figures and he had 10 points.dddddddddddd Rookie Victor Oladipo led Orlando with 16 points, Doron Lamb had 14, Tobias Harris 11 and ETwaun Moore 10, all off the bench. "Terrible, terrible game," Harris said. "Its not how we wanted to play and that shows us that there is no effort." Every Cleveland player in uniform scored as the Cavs shot 60.5 per cent in the first half and 57.7 per cent for the game in rolling over a defenceless Magic team that lost its second straight. Cleveland was 9 for 18 from beyond the 3-point line, most of them wide-open looks as Orlando struggled with defensive rotations the entire game. Cleveland had four of the five starters already in double figures by halftime. Hawes was 6 for 8 in the first two periods, including 4 for 5 on 3-pointers on his way to 18 points. Thompson had 14, Irving 13 and Waiters 10 as the Cavaliers starters combined to hit 24 of 33 shots (72.7 per cent) in the first two quarters. Deng was the only starter not in double figures, but still shot 4 for 5. The Magic, by contrast, didnt have a player score more than six points in the first half. Orlando had 11 turnovers that Cleveland turned into 16 points. The Magic trailed 49-42 after Oladipos 3-pointer with 6:11 left in the second quarter, but got only one field goal the rest of the half and were outscored 21-6 as Cleveland rolled to a 70-47 halftime lead. The closest Orlando got in the second half was 17 when Arron Afflalos 3 with 4:11 left in the third quarter made it 82-65. Afflalo, the Magics leading scorer this season, finished with seven points. Cleveland responded with a 10-0 run that started with a floater in the lane by Jack and ended with two free throws by Thompson to make it 92-65. Cleveland led by as many 28 points and cruised through the fourth quarter with little effort. NOTES: Cavs C Anderson Varajeo sat out the game with a sore shoulder. ... Magic C Nikola Vucevic, who had three straight games scoring 20-plus points for the first time all season coming into the game, scored only seven. ... Cleveland has beaten Orlando seven straight times. ... The Magic are 1-18 this season when teams shoot over 50 per cent. Cleveland shot 57.7 per cent in the game. ' ' '