ST. LOUIS _ The Blues have been all about streaks this season. And they're putting together another one in the friendly confines of Enterprise Center.
A stellar performance by the line of Alexander-Steen-Robert Thomas-Tyler Bozak keyed a 5-1 Blues victory over the Buffalo Sabres on Thursday before another sellout crowd of 18,096 at Enterprise Center.
It was the seventh consecutive home victory for the Blues, tied for the longest home winning streak this season in the NHL.
As for the Thomas line, that trio combined for four goals and five assists, with Steen scoring his first two goals of the season _ the second on an empty-netter. So Steen finished with two goals and one assist, while Thomas and Bozak both finished with one goal and two assists.
In their last six games together. dating back to a Dec. 27 game at Winnipeg, that line has combined for 11 goals and 10 assists.
The Blues improved to 28-10-7 for the season; Buffalo fell to 19-18-7.
The Blues did the one thing you can't do against Jack Eichel _ give him space. But after defender Vince Dunn couldn't get through a pick set by Buffalo defender Rasmus Dahlin, Eichel moved around the left circle and beat Jordan Binnington with his 27th goal of the season.
That came 4:22 into the second period. But for the second game in a row, David Perron turned a 2-1 Blues lead into a 3-1 advantage _ this time on the power play.
Perron's 18th goal of the season came at the 10:17 mark. He has a goal now in each of his last three games.
At one point in the period, the Blues had outshot Buffalo 11-1, but that one shot was Eichel's goal.
Entering Thursday's game, the Blues were 19-0-5 when scoring first in a game. With that in mind, Thomas put the Blues in good position when he opened the scoring against Buffalo.
Thomas skated around the right circle, then flicked a wrist shot past Linus Ullmark, far side, for his eighth goal of the season just 4:47 into the game. Thomas had nine goals all of last season.
Steen got a secondary assist on the play, giving him 300 assists as a member of the Blues. Only five other Blues have reached 300 assists.
The Steen-Bozak-Thomas line continued to sizzle later in the period. Thomas emerged from behind the Buffalo net, threading a pass to Bozak through three Sabres defenders for a room-service goal.
Bozak's 10th goal of the season gave St. Louis a 2-0 lead at the 13:29 mark of the first. The secondary assist this time went to Niko Mikkola, giving the rookie defenseman his first NHL point.
