SUNRISE, Fla. (AP) -- A tie wasn't what the St. Louis Blues wanted when they set out to make NHL history.

Michal Handzus scored with 2:16 left in regulation to keep the Blues from losing, but the draw ended St. Louis' 10-game road-winning streak.

	Panthers goalie Mike Vernon stopped Michal Handzus here in the second period, but Handzus finally found the net in the third.

A victory would have broken the tie the Blues had with the 1983-84 Buffalo Sabres for the most consecutive road wins.

"At least we got the point," Handzus said. "But we were a little disappointed we didn't break the record. The whole team wanted it bad in the overtime. It was amazing that we had won 10 in a row, but we didn't get the record."

The Blues' last road loss was Jan. 19 when they were beaten at Pittsburgh.

"We had a couple of chances in the overtime there," St. Louis coach Joel Quenneville said. "The streak was almost as like if we had scored it was meant to be. It was one of those things that kept going and going.

"We've won some games like that when we got timely goals like when Handzus scored that goal late. It was almost as if we could feel another one coming."

Handzus tied it after Florida's Robert Svehla, who lost his stick, tried to cover a loose puck in front of the crease. Instead, the puck rolled through his hands and Handzus slapped it past goalie Mike Vernon. Lubos Bartecko and Pavol Demitra, who extended his point streak to six games, got the assists.

"It was pretty lucky," Handzus said. "The defenseman didn't have his stick and I found the puck sitting there and shot at it."

The way Vernon was playing, he was on track for his second shutout of the season. Vernon also came up with some big saves in overtime, where the Blues outshot the Panthers 5-1.

"It looked like everything was under control there," Panthers coach Terry Murray said. "I don't what happened with our defenseman losing the stick. It didn't seem to me that there was anyone around him.

"It's one of those things that has happened to us over the last 8-10 games, maybe 12 games where we've had some strange situations that have come back to end up in our net."

Florida took a 1-0 lead at 6:40 of the second period on the Panthers' third power play.

Svehla's slap shot from the top of the right faceoff circle deflected off goalie Roman Turek's pad. Peter Worrell slapped the airborne puck into the net for his second goal of the season.

"The puck bounced in my area and both me and Ray Sheppard slapped at it," Worrell said. "I hit it and was able to put it in."

St. Louis had killed 33 of 34 power-play opportunities.

Pavel Bure assisted on the goal to raise his team-leading point total to 72.

The Blues had other quality scoring opportunities late in the first.

Vernon barely got a glove on Scott Young's backhanded wrist shot, sending the puck sailing over the crossbar. Less than a minute later, Vernon made perhaps the biggest save of the game when a wide-open Chris Pronger sent a wrist shot, from just outside the crease, into Vernon's body.

"We're still disappointed that when it comes down to crunch time we can't put games away," Worrell said. "We were playing the best team in hockey and you have to put them away and it is disappointing."