ST. LOUIS _ Blues coach Mike Yeo had to make some lineup decisions going into Thursday night's game with Vegas and one of them was who to use on his fourth line alongside Robby Fabbri. Despite how well Ivan Barbashev had played in recent games, Yeo liked the play of both center Robert Thomas and forward Oskar Sundqvist and opted to keep them in the lineup, and it paid off.
Sundqvist scored two goals, matching his career total in 72 previous games, and Thomas assisted on both of them as the Blues won two games in a row for the first time this season, beating Vegas 5-3 at Enterprise Center. It was the fifth consecutive game the Blues have had four or more goals.
Vladimir Tarasenko, Colton Parayko and Tyler Bozak also scored for the Blues. Tarasenko scored a power-play goal early in the second period for his sixth goal of the season. Parayko teed up a pass from Ryan O'Reilly in the second for a goal that made it 4-2 and extended some streaks. For O'Reilly, it was his sixth consecutive game with a point; for Sanford, it was his fifth and he has a point in all but one of his six games since he was called up from San Antonio on Oct. 15. Bozak got his goal with 8:13 to go in the third after Vegas had scored on a power play to cut the Blues' lead to one. That goal came right after a couple of good saves by Allen kept Vegas from tying the game.
In fact, the Blues showed some better than normal resolve on Thursday. Twice the Golden Knights tied the game, only to have the Blues retake the lead. And when Vegas cut the lead to one goal, the Blues responded.
Fabbri, in his return to action after two knee surgeries and 122 missing games, had an assist on Sundqvist's first goal.
