ST. LOUIS — Jake Neighbours had a goal and two assists during a four-goal second period for the St. Louis Blues in a 6-3 win against the Edmonton Oilers at Enterprise Center on Thursday.
“Started tilting the ice in our favor, started putting the pucks to the goal line and playing in the offensive zone and getting to the net, kind of doing all the little things,” Neighbours said. “Power play was good, converted twice and I thought our 5-on-5 game was really strong.”
Robert Thomas had a goal and two assists, and Jordan Kyrou, Pavel Buchnevich and Torey Krug each had a goal and an assist for the Blues (29-22-2), who have won eight of 10. Jordan Binnington made 35 saves.
“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. That’s what you need coming down the stretch and playing these big games, you need everyone involved and it’s nice to see it coming together.”
EDM@STL: Neighbours picks the corner for a sweet goal
Connor McDavid had three assists for Edmonton (31-18-1), which has lost three of five after a 16-game winning streak. Stuart Skinner made 24 saves.
“I think a lot of self-inflicted errors and things we can clean up,” Edmonton forward Zach Hyman said.
The Blues trailed 2-1 entering the second period before Neighbours tied it at 1:09 when he collected a rebound of a loose puck, spun and beat Skinner with a wrist shot.
Krug gave St. Louis a 3-2 lead at 8:37, scoring from the low shot off a no-look, behind-the-back pass from Neighbours.
“That’s all him,” Neighbours said of Krug. “He screamed at me, so I just threw it. Screamed at me, it’s good talk and (I) just tried throwing it somewhere and he buried it.”
Kyrou scored seven seconds into a power play to push the lead to 4-2 at 15:32 when he put in a rebound of a shot by Neighbours.
Buchnevich scored a power-play goal at 19:35 to make it 5-2 on a redirection from the slot off a pass from Thomas.
“I don’t know (what changed), maybe we found our legs,” Binnington said. “We started playing predictable, we were more disciplined. We stayed out of the box. We played a good, overall game. It’s nice to be back home and feeling good.”
EDM@STL: Buchnevich completes crafty play for a PPG
Corey Perry scored his first goal in his sixth game with the Oilers and cut the lead to 5-3 at 11:14 of the third period.
“I think he brings a lot of intangibles to our dressing room, our bench and then on the ice as well,” Edmonton forward Derek Ryan said of Perry. “He’s a leader and he’s a sparkplug. He can get us going when we’re not having our best night and I thought he did a good job doing that.”
Brandon Saad scored an empty-net goal at 17:07 for the 6-3 final.
Thomas gave St. Louis a 1-0 lead at 10:13 of the first on a cross-ice pass from Nick Leddy.
Leon Draisaitl tied it 1-1 with a power-play goal at 13:51.
Ryan Nugent-Hopkins gave the Oilers a 2-1 lead at 19:33 when he put in a loose puck in front of the net.
“I thought we moved it,” Edmonton coach Kris Knoblauch said of the first period. “Made some really good plays with the puck, not just giving it away, we were composed. 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.”
NOTES: McDavid has nine assists in his past two games, and 21 points (five goals, 16 assists) in his past eight games. … Thomas has 16 points (three goals, 13 assists) in his past 10 games and 15 points (six goals, nine assists) in 13 games against Edmonton. … Neighbours has three multi-point games (four goals, three assists) in his past four games. … Draisaitl has 20 points (seven goals, 13 assists) in his past 12 games and 21 points (seven goals, 14 assists) in 21 games against St. Louis. … St. Louis was 2-for-8 on the power play; Edmonton was 1-for-3. … Oilers defenseman Evan Bouchard had an assist and has 48 points (12 goals, 36 assists) in 50 games this season. The last Oilers defenseman to have that many points through 50 games was Paul Coffey (57 in 1986-87).
