LAS VEGAS_The second period has easily been the St. Louis Blues' best period this season. They entered Friday's game in Las Vegas at plus-7 on the season in the second. It became plus-10 at T-Mobile Arena, after three-goal second sparked the Blues to a 4-1 victory over the Vegas Golden Knights.
It marked the sixth game this season the Blues have scored as many as three goals in a period, and they've won all six. The teams were tied 1-1 after the opening period, then Ryan O'Reilly, Brayden Schenn and Oskar Sundqvist scored in the second period as the Blues improved to 7-7-3 on the season.
O'Reilly also scored in the first period, and his two-goal night gave him a team-high 10 goals for the season.
But the victory could be costly on the injury front. Defenseman Carl Gunnarsson missed most of the game with an upper-body injury and forward Jaden Schwartz _ who had two assists Friday _ left with about 8:40 left in the third.
Jake Allen was sharp, stopping 32 of 33 shots. The Blues had 35 shots themselves, their highest shot total in seven games.
The Jaden Schwartz-Ryan O'Reilly-Vladimir Tarasenko line continued to click. As was the case in the first period, O'Reilly scored a goal assisted by Tarasenko and Schwartz at 7:02 of the second, giving the Blues a 2-1 lead.
This time it was O'Reilly deflecting in a Schwartz shot for his 10th goal of the season and second of the night. It marked the seventh time this season a Blues player has had a multiple-goal game; O'Reilly had a hat trick on Nov. 6 against Carolina.
Then Schenn, seeing his first action since Nov 6 after missing four games with an oblique muscle injury, deflected in a Joel Edmundson shot for his fourth goal of the season at 16:13 of the period. Sundqvist made it a 4-1 Blues lead 59 seconds, with a strong move to the net after a rebound and a little deke-and-shoot to beat Vegas goalie Marc-Andre Fleury.
It was Sundqvist's fourth goal of the season; three have come against Vegas.
Allen was sharp in goal, stopping all 13 Vegas shots in the period.
