ST. LOUIS (AP) — Robert Thomas and Jake Neighbours each had a goal and two assists and the St. Louis Blues beat the Edmonton Oilers 6-3 on Thursday night.
Jordan Binnington made 36 saves, highlighted by two dazzling saves on Zach Hyman during an Edmonton power play in the first period.
“It’s just become normal for him at this point and I mean all of us expect to see it,” Neighbours said about Binnington. “We obviously can’t rely on it, but you know, when there are breakdowns, he’s always there.”
Jordan Kyrou, Torey Krug and Pavel Buchnevich each added a goal and an assist and Brandon Saad also scored to help the Blues win for the eighth time in 10 games.
“We’re coming along,” Thomas said. “I think we’re trending in the right direction. We’re coming together as a team and playing the right way. If you look at the last four games, everyone’s chipping in, different lines stepping up, carrying the weight every night.”
Leon Draisaitl, Ryan Nugent-Hopkins and Corey Perry scored for Edmonton and Connor McDavid had three assists. The Oilers lost for the third time in five games following a 16-game winning streak. Stuart Skinner made 24 saves.
The Oilers came away with a 2-1 lead after the first period behind goals from Draisaitl and Nugent-Hopkins.
“I thought we moved it, made some really good plays with the puck, not just giving it away, we were composed,” Oilers coach Kris Knoblauch said. “And, you know, I think there was maybe a couple of shifts that weren’t up to our standards and one that we got scored against, but other than that, I liked how we were just keeping our game simple, getting in on the forecheck and then spending some time in the offensive zone, because that’s where we were playing our best.”
The Blues took control with four straight goals in the second period.
Neighbours tied it at 2 1:09 into the period, and Krug gave the Blues the lead at 8:37, scoring off Neighbours’s behind-the-back pass.
“Part of our identity is getting pucks to the goal line and wearing teams down, playing in the O-zone and getting the puck low to high and getting to the net and getting shots there,” Neighbours said. “So, I thought we did a better job of that in a second.”
Kyrou made it 4-2 with a power play goal with 4:28 left, burying a rebound off Neighbours’ shot. Buchnevich capped the spree with a power-play goal with 25 seconds left, tipping in a pass from Thomas.
“We were great,” Binnington said about the second period. “Power play was clicking. We played the right way. If we do that and we play together and we believe in our structure, we have a chance every night.”
Edmonton took nine penalties, including having to kill six straight minutes in the third period which hampered any momentum for a rally.
“It makes it really hard when you take that many penalties,” Oilers center Derek Ryan said. “It gets you out of a rhythm. Obviously, our PK has been struggling a little bit too, so it’s hard when you keep putting us back out there again and again and again.”
UP NEXT
Oilers: At Dallas on Saturday.
Blues: Host Nashville on Saturday.
