The St. Louis Blues dominated the final 40 minutes of the game Thursday night at Rogers Place and cruised to a 4-1 victory over the Edmonton Oilers.
The Oilers were on the power play late in the first but wound up surrendering a goal. Cam Talbot and Oscar Klefbom got tangled up behind the net and the puck came free into the crease. St. Louis’ Vladimir Sobotka tapped the puck into the empty net. The Oilers came back just 29 seconds later while on the same power play. Ryan Strome fired a hard wrist shot from the right circle past Jake Allen.
The Blues vastly outplayed the Oilers in the second period and took a 2-1 lead on a power play goal from Alexander Steen. They could have stretched their lead further but Talbot made several saves on good scoring chances. The Blues outshot the Oilers 19-11 in the period.
“They had quite a few odd man rushes in the second period and we just didn’t manage the puck well coming over their blue line,” Talbot said after the game. “We turned it over a few times and we fed their transition. Against a team like that, you can’t give them that many opportunities.”
“They threw 19 shots at us in the second period and I thought we fed their transition an awful lot,” Oilers head coach Todd McLellan said. “We would get the puck over the blue line, we would pull up, turn it over and they’d be coming back the other way. They were better than us in a lot of areas tonight and they got the win.”
Brayden Schenn scored goals 1:44 apart in the third to put the game away.
“We know (Talbot) is a good goalie. He’s going to make that first save. He was playing well for them,” Schenn explained. “We just stuck with our game which we did, and we knew we’d come out on top.”
It was the Oilers debut for Mike Cammalleri, acquired in a trade with L.A. on Tuesday. Cammalleri’s best scoring chance came on a mid-range one-timer in the first period.
“On a personal level, I was just excited to play but that sours pretty quickly when the game doesn’t go the way you like,” Cammalleri said afterward. “I enjoyed playing with the different guys and it’s kind of a crash course in the personnel when you get out there in a game like that, so that was all interesting.”
The Oilers sink to 7-10-2 on the season and just 4-7 on home ice. They’ll open a five-game road trip Saturday afternoon in Dallas.
-With files from Brenden Ullrich and Scott Johnston, 630 CHED