ST. LOUIS _ There is no reason to get excited. But the Blues have now won six of their last nine after polishing off Buffalo 4-1 Thursday at Enterprise Center.
For the first time, they are above .500 under Craig Berube (8-7-1). And for the first time since Nov. 17, the Blues are just one game under .500 overall at 15-16-2.
Jay Bouwmeester scored what proved to be the game winner and fittingly, Ryan O'Reilly made sure there would be no Sabres comeback scoring the Blues' final goal, his 14th of the season.
On this night, Jake Allen outdueled his former backup Carter Hutton in goal. If the Blues ate a few too many Christmas cookies over their four-day break, it didn't look like it Thursday.
For the most part, they took care of the puck, and took care of Allen in front of the net.
The Blues got some offense from unlikely sources, taking a 3-0 lead midway through the second period, only to have Buffalo trim the lead to 3-1 with a power play goal late in the period.
Rookie Robert Thomas scored his third goal of the season, Bouwmeester notched his first of the campaign and then Pat Maroon scored his third to make it 3-0 Blues at the 10:55 mark of the second.
Thomas broke a scoreless tie when he nudged the puck under the legs of Hutton, capping a wild net-front scrum at the 2:03 mark of the period.
Bouwmeester than scored his first goal since Feb. 13 of last season, taking a feed from David Perron in the slot, and then taking his time with a high shot that found the upper-right corner of the net.
Just 54 seconds after the Bouwmeester score, Maroon had a backside tap-in after Thomas weaved his way through three Buffalo defenders and slid the puck across the crease to Maroon.
Jack Eichel's 15th goal of the season got Buffalo on the board with just 2:35 left in the period.
For a scoreless opening period with a relatively low shot total, there was lots of action.
Jaden Schwartz had a couple of prime opportunities in the opening minutes, both on passes from Vladimir Tarasenko, but couldn't connect against former Blues goalie Carter Hutton.
The Blues successfully killed off the only penalty of the period, a dubious tripping call against Joel Edmundson. No. 1 overall draft pick Rasmus Dahlin had Buffalo's best chance with about 5 { minutes left, but Allen slid over to make a kick save.
Buffalo outshot St. Louis 10-6, but the Blues had the better chances.
