Over that stretch, they never lost even two consecutive games in regulation. Now they have.

Costly mistakes and lackluster special teams play led to their demise in a 4-2 loss Saturday to the Tampa Bay Lightning.

They could have used some of the talent on hand for the inaugural Blues Hall of Fame weekend. Unfortunately for the Blues, Bernie Federko, Garry Unger, Red Berenson and the other Hall of Famers couldn’t suit up. They’re out of eligibility.

Three games into a season-long seven-game homestand, the Blues fell two games below .500 at Enterprise Center — at 8-10-2. They are 1-2-0 on the homestand and fell to 21-20-3 overall on the season.

Tampa Bay improved to 27-13-1 overall but was a pedestrian 9-9-0 on the road entering Saturday’s game, and the Blues had won eight of their previous nine here against the Lightning.

Saturday was another matter. An early unlikely goal by Tyler Pitlick provided some early momentum for St. Louis, but that quickly faded. The Lightning don’t make many mistakes and know how to finish when they get an opportunity. That really couldn’t be said for the Blues on this night.

After missing four games with an upper-body injury, veteran defenseman Nick Leddy returned to the lineup. But the Blues still have seven players on injured reserve, and the loss of those players may finally be starting to catch up with the team in the New Year.

Sooner or later the energy and adrenaline of younger players called up wanes a bit. And that’s when a more talented opponent may have the advantage.

The Blues got nothing going on special teams Saturday, going 0-for-3 on the power play and not generating much of anything on the first two. Meanwhile, Tampa scored easily on a first-period power play to take the lead for good.

At least the Blues didn’t give up an empty-net goal this time. Pavel Buchnevich took care off that, sliding to break up a Tampa shot.

Tampa took a two-goal lead in the second period when defenseman Nick Perbix scored from distance. His shot elevated after hitting the stick of Alexey Toropchenko out in open ice and then handcuffed Jordan Binnington up high and went in, making it 3-1 Lightning with 7:16 remaining in the period.

But just 71 seconds later it was back to a one-goal game when Buchnevich, trailing on a Blues rush, skated down the slot, took a pass from Jordan Kyrou and scored his 15th goal of the season. He blew a kiss to the crowd and then went about his business.

Before the period was out Tampa had its two-goal lead back on an in-close goal by Alex Killorn. Justin Faulk had Killorn covered in the corner, and then when the puck went elsewhere got caught puck watching.

Killorn hustled to the net with Faulk late in coverage and scored on a nifty pass from Brandon Hagel with just 1:38 remaining in the second.

Journeyman Tyler Pitlick scored his first goal of the season Nov. 16 in Chicago, just his ninth game of the season. Then, he wasn’t heard from for quite a while. In and out of the lineup, Pitlick gained some traction recently playing on the fourth line with Nikita Alexandrov and Toropchenko.

And there was Pitlick early in the first period Saturday, taking a pass from Toropchenko just as he was splitting two Tampa Bay defenders. Pitlick skated in and left Lightning goalie Andrei Vasilevskiy shaking his head after he beat him glove side for his second goal of the season.

It was Pitlick’s 50th goal in a nine-year NHL career spent with Edmonton, Dallas, Philadelphia, Arizona, Calgary, Montreal and now St. Louis.

Pitlick’s goal gave the Blues some early momentum, but somewhere along the line the Blues forgot to cover Brayden Point, who entered the night as the Lightning’s leading goal scorer with 23.

The first of Point’s two first-period goals came after Noel Acciari lost a puck battle along the right boards to Perbix. Perbix quickly sent the puck to Point, who was left alone in the slot, and Point buried it to tie the game 1-1 with 7:38 left in the opening period.

Less than 4 ½ minutes later, Point had his second goal of the night and 25th of the season. Ivan Barbashev took an ill-advised hooking penalty, hooking Point in the St. Louis zone. It’s usually not a good idea to put the league’s second-rated power play on the ice (28.9%), and that proved to be the case this time.

Point was left alone at the backdoor for a tap-in goal off a net-front pass from Steven Stamkos. It was too easy — ridiculously easy, and it was 2-1 Tampa with 3:17 left in period.