ST. LOUIS -- The St. Louis Blues had to respond after a dud on Tuesday.
Their 4-1 loss against the Toronto Maple Leafs was just their second in nine games but also second thud.
A four-game homestand awaited, and the high-flying Edmonton Oilers, who had won 18 of 20, including a 16-game winning streak, were on the ledger.
But getting contributions up and down the lineup again proved beneficial for the Blues.
Jake Neighbours and Robert Thomas led the charge each with a goal and two assists, Jordan Kyrou and Pavel Buchnevich each had a goal and an assist, and Jordan Binnington was terrific when called upon with 35 saves in a 6-3 win against the Oilers at Enterprise Center on Thursday.
Let's break it all down in the three-period takeaways:
* First Period -- The Oilers started with the early push, and defenseman Evan Bouchard thought he had given the visitors a 1-0 lead at 2:54 on a shot from the slot, but referee Chris Rooney immediately waved off the goal due to goalie interference on Corey Perry.
Matthew Kessel took an early tripping penalty at 5:20, putting the Blues' PK unit up to a challenge against the high-powered Oilers power play, but it was a really solid kill when the Blues didn't allow Edmonton to get any kind of zone possession.
The Blues had a solid o-zone possession, and Thomas cashed in on a terrific Nick Leddy cross-ice feed off the left wall for a 1-0 lead at 10:13.
The Blues had the chance to extend the lead when Leon Draisaitl was called for tripping at 11:23, but it was off-set by Jordan Kyrou's hooking minor at 12:33. It came as a result of Torey Krug's whiff at the point that enabled the Oilers to go on an odd-man shorthanded rush.
On the ensuing Edmonton power play, Draisaitl tied it 1-1 at 13:51 when Bouchard's initial shot was blocked straight to Connor McDavid, who had three assists, and the Edmonton captain fed Draisaitl for the one-timer from the bottom of the right circle.
Nikita Alexandrov, who played just 4:05, took the Blues' third minor of the period when he was called for high-sticking, and this is where Binnington came up with two massive saves.
The first came on Zach Hyman, an unbelievable glove save in tight at the top of the crease at 15:12.
"You're not really thinking, right," Binnington said. "I forget what he said there, but he's good around the net; we know that. It was nice to get that one on him."
Binnington then robbed Hyman again for good measure at 16:24 on a sprawling toe save.
"Just get as far as I can over and luckily got a toe on it there and then we got it out of harm's way," Binnington said.
Yeah.
"It brings life to the bench," Thomas said. "You get down three goals, it's tough to claw back. Those saves are so crucial for us."
They did get down a goal late in the first when Ryan Nugent-Hopkins made it 2-1with 26.2 seconds left.
Kasperi Kapanen had over-skated the puck near the red line enabling the Oilers to gain zone possession, then flood the net and RNH pounced on a loose puck as the Blues didn't protect the crease very well.
They escaped down only 2-1 and outshot 14-8, with the Oilers getting 12 of the final 14 shots.
"I think the first period we were trading chances and that doesn't work too well against these guys," Thomas said. 'I think we really got to our game plan and started working. It benefitted us. We drew a lot of penalties just from working. They had a lot of penalties in the d-zone. I think that was our mindset and it turned out well for us."
Oskar Sundqvist thought he had scored at the buzzer replays clearly showed his shot was put in after the clock struck zeroes.
* Second Period -- Adjustments were made, and the Blues finally gained some energy and zone time.
The life was evident when they spent the first 1:09 in the Edmonton zone, and it culminated with Neighbours tying the game 2-2.
Edmonton started taking its rash of penalties, and Vincent Desharnais took the first of his three minors with a hooking penalty at 3:55.
However, Binnington was called upon again, stopping Derek Ryan's breakaway not once but twice at 4:01 and 4:02 off the quick rebound.
"He kept us in that game and gave us a chance," Thomas said of Binnington.
Torey Krug's second goal of the season made it 3-2 as the Blues continued their relentless play.
Kapanen intercepted the first initial exit to keep puck in the zone, then Brayden Schenn picks one off on the wall. Neighbours absorbs a McDavid check behind the net, then fights him off to feed Kapanen for a one-timer. Schenn got the puck to Matthew Kessel for a shot that created a rebound, and Neighbours' no-look pass to Krug made it 3-2 at 8:37.
"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 just tried throwing it somewhere and he buried it."
Desharnais went to the box again for cross checking at 15:25, and Kyrou made him pay seven seconds later when he potted a rebound at 15:32 for a 4-2 lead.
Thomas won the face-off, he got it back, fed Neighbours going to the net, Neighbours gets off two shots, creating a rebound for Kyrou on the opposite side of the goal.
It got a little chippy late when Marco Scandella and Perry scrapped at 16:15.
"Scandy steps up big for us and gets the life going," Thomas said. "I think that really turned our intensity up and gave us a lot of momentum."
Connor Brown then took his turn going to the box for hooking at 18:39, and Buchnevich made it 5-2 with 24.9 left in the period when he redirected in a beautiful pass from Thomas.
"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."
The Oilers were outshooting the Blues 28-23 but it was 15-14 in favor of the Blues in the period.
* Third Period -- It was a chance for the Blues to really put the game away when Cody Ceci (slashing at 4:44) and Desharnais (elbowing/unsportsmanlike conduct) at 6:36 used a parade to the box and roughly six minutes of power play time for the Blues.
They didn't take advantage of it, and the Oilers tried making it interesting when Perry found a loose puck of a partially deflected shot and deposited it over Binnington at 11:14 to cut the Blues' lead to 5-3.
Edmonton had a push to try and cut it to one but never could get there, as the Blues were basically managing the period trying to kill the clock.
Dylan Holloway was called for cross checking at 14:49, but the Blues didn't score and finished 2-for-8 with the man advantage, and Brandon Saad capped off a successful night with an empty-netter at 17:07 for the 6-3 win and move four points ahead of anyone chasing them in the Western Conference wild card.
"There's a strong belief in this group," Blues interim coach Drew Bannister said. "If we're going to make the playoffs, which we believe we can and we have a team in here that plays the way we did tonight and plays against opponents like Edmonton and other teams that we have beaten along the road here, that we're going to give ourselves a chance. We have to be able to beat these hockey teams to give ourselves a chance to make the playoffs, and tonight's a step in the right direction."
