The St. Louis Blues scored four goals in the second period on the way to a 6-3 win over the Edmonton Oilers Thursday night.
“It makes it really hard when you take that many penalties; it gets you out of a rhythm,” Oilers forward Derek Ryan said after the game.
“Obviously our PK has been struggling a little bit too. It’s hard when you keep putting us back out there again and again and again.”
The Blues went ahead halfway through the first when Robert Thomas grabbed the puck on the right side and fired a shot in off the mask of Oilers goaltender Stuart Skinner.
The Oilers pulled even on a power play when Connor McDavid set up Leon Draisaitl for his patented off-wing one-timer.
Jordan Binnington came up with two amazing saves on another Oilers power play later in the first. He used his glove to snare a close range shot from Oilers forward Zach Hyman. Then he shot out his left pad to deny a backhand try by Hyman. In the final minute of the period, Ryan Nugent-Hopkins banged in a rebound to make it 2-1 Oilers after one.
Former Edmonton Oil King Jake Neighbours pulled the Blues even 1:09 into the second.
Neighbours would later play set-up man on Torey Krug’s second of the season.
On a power play later in the period, Neighbours earned another assist when Jordan Kyrou cashed in his rebound.
In the final minute of the second, Pavel Buchnevich scored on a power play to make it 5-2 Blues.
Corey Perry scored his first goal as an Oiler in the third.
Oilers winger Connor Brown nearly found his first of the season but his backhand dinged off the crossbar with just under six minutes to go.
Blues forward Brandon Saad scored an empty-netter.
“I thought we pushed back in the third, and then I think it was six minutes or something like that in penalties and it’s tough to win,” Hyman said. “But that’s not the reason we lost — we’ve got to clean up our defensive zone.”
The Blues were 2 for 8 on the power play while the Oilers were 1 for 3.
“Obviously we’re very frustrated with the calls that went against us,” Oilers head coach Kris Knoblauch said. “It puts us in a difficult position to win the game, especially when you’re behind.
“We’re needing goals and here we’re spending time killing penalties. As a team we have to put it aside, no matter how much we disagree with the call. There’s been a lot of calls that our team has disagreed with, but we just have to put it aside and play hockey.”
Nugent-Hopkins played his 851st game, tying him with Mark Messier for the third-most ever as an Oiler.
The Oilers (31-18-1) will visit the Dallas Stars on Saturday. You can listen to the game live on 630 CHED, beginning with The Faceoff Show at 11:30 a.m. The actual game starts at 1 p.m.
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