NEWARK, N.J. — The New Jersey Devils’ stars came to play Thursday at the Prudential Center. But the Blues had more than enough from their depleted lineup to post a 5-3 victory against one of the league’s most improved teams.
The Blues improved to 19-17-3; New Jersey fell to 24-12-3.
In the third period, goals by Brandon Saad and Robert Thomas gave the Blues a 4-2 lead midway through. Saad’s goal was his 11th of the season and his third in the two games the Blues have played without the injured Ryan O’Reilly and Vladimir Tarasenko.
That came at the 2:27 mark of the third period and snapped a 2-2 tie. Then, with Devils defenseman Dougie Hamilton off for high-sticking Noel Acciari, Thomas scored on the power play for his ninth goal of the season. It came from a sharp angle — basically parallel to the goal line with 10:07 left in the game.
Nico Hischier countered with a power play goal for New Jersey with 7:51 to play on a 5-on-3 power play.
New Jersey pulled its goalie and applied all kinds of pressure on the Blues, but an empty-net goal by Thomas made it a 5-3 lead for the Blues.
Sharp as can be
Jordan Binnington didn’t have his best game in Tuesday’s shootout victory in Toronto but he was razor sharp to start Thursday’s game in Jersey.
There wasn’t a lot of offense generated early. New Jersey, for example, didn’t get its first shot on goal until seven minutes into the game, but it was a doozy by the red-hot Hughes. The former No. 1 overall pick sent a sizzler from the right circle off a New Jersey rush, but Binnington slid over to his left to make a glove save.
Midway through the period, veteran Tomas Tatar tattooed one from 15 feet away that trickled off behind Binnington, but out of harm’s way — barely.
It was the Blues who struck first, however, on a dazzling play by Pavel Buchnevich and Jordan Kyrou. Buchnevich had the puck just inside the blue line at the right point. With his back to the net, he spun around and sent a pass to a streaking Kyrou at net front.
Kyrou arrived just in time — and we mean just in time — to jab at the puck and knock it into the net.
His 19th goal of the season made it a 1-0 lead with 8:13 remaining in the first and that’s the way it stayed after one.
There was some drama near the end of the period after Ivan Barbashev was called for a penalty for hooking Erik Haula with 2:42 left. New Jersey entered the game ranked 22nd in the league on the power play at 20.3%. But you would’ve never known it by the way they peppered Binnington with the man advantage.
But five shots on goal and two minutes later, the Blues had killed it off. New Jersey got the last seven shots on goal in the period, but the Blues took a 1-0 lead into the first intermission.
The Hughes Show
Hughes was heard from again in the second period. And this time he was successful. Twice.
Just 3:51 into the second, Hughes scored his 23rd goal of the season to tie it at 1-1. Devils defenseman Damon Severson launched a shot from distance, Binnington left a rebound, and Hughes got behind Blues D-man Nick Leddy for the rebound goal.
There was more from Hughes — a 24th goal from the left circle that came after a Jake Neighbours turnover. Neighbours’ first mistake was trying to get the puck out from the middle of the ice in traffic. Then he had the puck swatted away in the general direction of Hughes. Leddy unsuccessfully tried to get the puck away from Hughes, who scored from the left circle to give the home team a 2-1 lead at the 8:47 mark.
At this point, the Blues were on their heels. New Jersey came at them in waves and at one point in the period had a 22-8 edge in shots on goal. During that stretch of play, Leddy nearly scored, ringing a shot off the post from about 20 feet.
The Blues regained their balance as the period wound down, and then tied the game at 2-2 on a blistering shot by Barbashev that may have left a vapor trail. Barbashev had a potential shot with a pretty good look from the right circle.
But he paused, took a couple strides toward the middle of the ice and let ‘er rip for his sixth goal of the season and first since Dec. 16 in Calgary. The last five Barbashev goals have come on the road. So it was a 2-2 game with 3:33 left in the second.
And that’s the way it stayed after two periods, with the Blues opening the third with 1:22 left on the power play following an interference penalty on Dougie Hamilton that was drawn by Nikita Alexandrov.
