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.

ā€œItā€™s just become normal for him at this point and I mean all of us expect to see it,ā€ Neighbours said about Binnington. ā€œWe obviously canā€™t rely on it, but you know, when there are breakdowns, heā€™s always there.ā€

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.

ā€œWeā€™re coming along,ā€ Thomas said. ā€œI think weā€™re trending in the right direction. Weā€™re coming together as a team and playing the right way. If you look at the last four games, everyoneā€™s chipping in, different lines stepping up, carrying the weight every night.ā€

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.

ā€œI thought we moved it, made some really good plays with the puck, not just giving it away, we were composed,ā€ Oilers coach Kris Knoblauch said. ā€œAnd, you know, I think there was maybe a couple of shifts that werenā€™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 thatā€™s where we were playing our best.ā€

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 Neighboursā€™s behind-the-back pass.

ā€œPart 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,ā€ Neighbours said. ā€œSo, I thought we did a better job of that in a second.ā€

Kyrou made it 4-2 with a power play goal with 4:28 left, burying a rebound off Neighboursā€™ shot. Buchnevich capped the spree with a power-play goal with 25 seconds left, tipping in a pass from Thomas.

ā€œWe were great,ā€ Binnington said about the second period. ā€œPower 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.ā€

Edmonton took nine penalties, including having to kill six straight minutes in the third period which hampered any momentum for a rally.

ā€œIt makes it really hard when you take that many penalties,ā€ Oilers center Derek Ryan said. ā€œIt gets you out of a rhythm. Obviously, our PK has been struggling a little bit too, so itā€™s hard when you keep putting us back out there again and again and again.ā€

UP NEXT

Oilers: At Dallas on Saturday.

Blues: Host Nashville on Saturday.

---

AP NHL: https://apnews.com/hub/nhl

Copyright 2024 STATS LLC and Associated Press. Any commercial use or distribution without the express written consent of STATS LLC and Associated Press is strictly prohibited.