Blues begin road trip on a good note, defeat Oilers 4-1
EDMONTON, Alberta — A long look at a close call helped the St. Louis Blues take two points Tuesday night and left the Edmonton Oilers scratching their heads.
Pat Maroon was credited with the tiebreaking goal following a replay review early in the third period, and St. Louis went on to a 4-1 victory over Edmonton.
David Perron, Vladimir Tarasenko and Jaden Schwartz also scored for the Blues, who have won three of four. Brayden Schenn had three assists.
"It was a real solid team effort," interim coach Craig Berube said. "Man to man, everybody was dialed in and played a real solid team game for 60 minutes. Special teams were big, we scored a big power-play goal, the penalty kill was excellent."
Jesse Puljujarvi scored for the Oilers, who had won six straight home games.
Maroon's second goal of the season came 2:19 into the final period. Officials determined the puck crossed the line during a goal-mouth scramble, even though initially no goal was called on the ice.
"The way it was explained to us was that he pushed on the puck, he didn't push on the pad," Oilers coach Ken Hitchcock said. "The pad happened to go with the puck. That was the way it was explained to us. They said they had an overhead view that said the puck was in before the push started. The look that we had was different. So what are you going to do?"
Maroon was just happy the goal counted.
"I think the longer (the review) goes, the better it is for us. I think if it goes longer, they're making a decision if it crossed the line, and it went long to see if it was goaltender interference, too," he said. "It means a lot. I've been struggling a lot and I haven't been going to the net as much and I haven't been finding ways to get the puck in the net."
Edmonton forward Jujhar Khaira was serving a five-minute major for cross-checking when the Blues added to their lead as Tarasenko ended a seven-game drought with his 10th goal of the season.
Schwartz put the game away with an empty-netter.
St. Louis went ahead eight minutes into the first period when Perron beat Oilers goalie Cam Talbot up high with a wrist shot for his 11th goal of the season.
The Blues had 13 first-period shots, while the Oilers only put eight on St. Louis starter Jake Allen, who finished with 22 saves.
Edmonton came close five minutes into the second period, but Connor McDavid ripped a shot off the crossbar. The Oilers got the tying goal a couple of minutes after that, however, when Puljujarvi scored on a one-timer — a play that withstood a replay review for a potential offside call.
Edmonton defenseman Caleb Jones picked up his first NHL point with an assist.
The Oilers came close to grabbing the lead early in the third when Khaira's shot got behind Allen before being fished out to safety by defender Joel Edmundson.
Maroon's winner came minutes later.
Schwartz on McDavid's incredible quickness: "There's not a lot of guys with speed like that, so you've got to be careful. ... I got to play with him at the Worlds and it was crazy — it made me feel pretty slow, to be honest." #stlbluespic.twitter.com/l08catRAOe
NOTES: It was the second of three meetings between the teams. Edmonton won the first one 3-2 in a shootout on Dec. 5. ... Allen allowed 10 first-period goals on 40 shots in his previous four starts, but blanked Edmonton in the opening period this time.
UP NEXT
Blues: The second stop on a three-game Western Canada swing comes Thursday in Vancouver.
Oilers: Host the Tampa Bay Lightning on Saturday in the second game of a five-game homestand.
