ST. LOUIS -- Scoring goals never was a big part of Derek MacKenzie's game, so when the Florida Panthers center has a night like he did Tuesday, it is something special.

MacKenzie played 412 games scattered across 12 seasons in his NHL career prior to Tuesday night, scoring 37 career goals, and only once had he enjoyed the kind of game he did against the St. Louis Blues.

MacKenzie scored two goals in the second period to lead the Panthers to a 3-1 win over the Blues, giving Florida its first three-game winning streak of the season.

The Panthers also broke a six-game losing streak to the Blues that dated back to Oct. 31, 2009.

The only other time in his career MacKenzie scored two goals in a game was on March 12, 2011, when he was playing for the Columbus Blue Jackets against the Carolina Hurricanes.

"I certainly didn't expect coming into this game for that to happen," said MacKenzie, whose only previous goal this season came on Oct. 20. "It's a bonus, and to come up with a win against a team like this, I'm happy for the guys."

MacKenzie's first goal of the night came just 13 seconds after the Panthers took a 1-0 lead on a goal from left winger Brandon Pirri off a breakaway 12:18 into the second period.

A turnover by Blues left winger Steve Ott left MacKenzie alone with the puck in front of the St. Louis net, and his shot beat goalie Jake Allen for a 2-0 lead.

The Blues got one of those goals back just 21 seconds later from center David Backes before MacKenzie got his second unassisted goal of the night with 3:19 left in the period after another Blues turnover.

"He's a hard-working guy, and you see him every night he works hard," Panthers coach Gerard Gallant said. "He's mostly a penalty-killer and a fourth-line guy that does a good job for us, and tonight he got rewarded from working real hard and picked off some plays."

It was turnovers -- three of which led to the Florida goals -- that upset Blues coach Ken Hitchcock.

"It's disappointing," Hitchcock said. "You can't play sideways and expect to score goals in this league. You've got to really play to the net, and when you play the way we're playing right now, you're not going to have much success.

"We tried to make crazy things happen when there was nothing there, and we paid the price dearly because of it."

Said Ott, "It was real sloppy, a lot of turnovers, myself included. You kind of chase the game when you turn the puck over as much as we did tonight.

"It's one of those games you've just got to throw out the window and regroup quickly. We just didn't have it tonight. Drop this game, put it away and go on to the next one."

Getting the two goals even allowed MacKenzie and his teammates to joke about the goal he didn't score. Early in the second period, with the game scoreless, he had a short-handed breakaway but fired the shot directly at Allen.

"Guys were making fun of him a little bit after his breakaway that he shot right in (Allen's) chest, but after that, he turned it up to beast mode and buried a couple there, " said Florida goalie Roberto Luongo, who made 29 saves.

After the missed opportunity, MacKenzie had no way to predict how the rest of his night would go.

"Obviously, I came to the bench and was pretty disappointed," he said. "I thought that could have broken the game open a little bit and get us some momentum. I never know how they go in, they just went in today. I thought our line deserved it. I think that was just kind of carryover to the hard work those guys put in."

Allen was replaced after the second period, having allowed three goals on 15 shots. Brian Elliott entered and stopped all eight shots he faced.

NOTES: Five players in the Blues' lineup Tuesday night were not even born when Panthers RW Jaromir Jagr, now 43, made his NHL debut on Oct. 5, 1990. By the time Blues' 19-year-old rookie LW Robby Fabbri was born, Jagr had scored 197 NHL goals. ... The Panthers inserted RW Dave Bolland and LW Shawn Thornton into their lineup, scratching RW Logan Shaw and C Nick Bjugstad, who has an upper-body injury. ... Healthy scratches for the Blues were RW Dmitij Jaskin, C Scott Gomez and D Robert Bortuzzo. ... The Panthers said D Dmitry Kulikov (lower body injury) likely will play either Thursday at Nashville or Friday at Columbus. ... The Blues will play 11 of their 16 games in December at home.