EDMONTON, Alberta — After the Blues’ second win in three days over the Vancouver Canucks, veteran David Perron consciously pumped the breaks. The Blues needed to put together four or five consecutive wins, Perron cautioned, before they could start to feel like they had something going.
Well, they’re not there yet. Their winning “streak” ended at two games Friday at Rogers Place. With leading scorer Jordan Kyrou still out of the lineup with illness, and Jordan Binnington in net, the Blues failed to build on that Vancouver momentum, losing 6-5 in overtime to the Edmonton Oilers.
At 37-20-10 and adding an 84th point, the Blues still have work to do to clinch a playoff berth. They finished their season series against Edmonton (39-25-5) having gone 1-1-1. They close out this road trip and play their final regular-season game against a Canadian team on Saturday in Calgary.
For the Oilers, it marked their ninth straight home victory.
Connor McDavid scored the game-winner, with 3:49 left in overtime.
Believe it or not, the Blues actually were the higher scoring team entering Friday’s game at 3.52 goals per game to Edmonton’s 3.43. But you wouldn’t have known it by what transpired in the first period.
Almost immediately, the Oilers hit the Blues with a barrage of shots and goals. Zach Hyman twice. Evander Kane. McDavid. Pavel Buchnevich temporarily stopped the bleeding when his career-high 22nd goal this season made it a 1-1 game just 4 1/2 minutes in.
But 30 seconds later, Hyman scored his second goal of the game, and the floodgates opened. The Blues’ defense wasn’t ready. Binnington didn’t look ready. And neither did the team’s forwards.
The shame of it was from a Blues standpoint, they were facing a goalie they have owned over the years in 40-year-old Mike Smith. He entered the game with a 5-18-0 career record against the Blues — with a 3.55 goals-against average and a .882 save percentage. Those 18 losses are the most by Smith against any NHL team.
But the Blues couldn’t make him pay, at least not in the opening period.
One of the Edmonton goals deflected in off Marco Scandella’s stick. Another came after an Ivan Barbashev turnover in the St. Louis zone. And one resulted from sloppy net-front play by Justin Faulk. But it’s clear Binnington is just a shell of his old self this season.
After McDavid’s 38th goal of the season made it a 4-1 Edmonton lead, Binnington was pulled with 6:30 to play in the first. Ville Husso, who will play Saturday in Calgary, took over the net.
It was the second time Binnington has been pulled from a game this season — and both instances came in the Canadian province of Alberta. On Jan. 24, Binnington was yanked after allowing seven goals in a 7-1 loss to Calgary.
As bleak as things looked after one period, the Blues clawed their way back into the contest with goals by Robert Thomas and Brayden Schenn in the second period.
The Blues began the second with 1:49 left on a power play, the residue of a Cody Ceci hooking penalty (draw by Brandon Saad) at the end of the first. Just as the power play ended, Saad directed a net-front pass to Thomas who wedged in a backdoor goal to make it a 4-2 game just 1:54 into the period.
It was Thomas’ 14th goal of the season and his sixth in his last eight games. Things stabilized after that for the Blues and it was a pretty even game. It got even more even when Schenn’s 19th goal of the season made it a 4-3 game with 4:33 left in the second.
The entire tenor of the game changed. But then came a late goal by Oilers defenseman Darnell Nurse that changed the tenor of the game back the other way. Nurse carried the puck freely through the neutral zone, and then after Husso left a rebound of a Kane shot, Nurse outworked Faulk for the puck and flipped in a backhand to make it 5-3.
At that point in the game Faulk was minus-4.
There was more hope for the Blues early in the third, when the offensive pressure by the visitors left the Oilers scrambling in their own end. The result was Buchnevich left open net front with the puck and a whole lot of open net staring him in the face.
His second goal of the night and 23rd of the season made it a one-goal game again — 5-4 Edmonton — just 2:06 into the third.
The Blues then had a prime chance to tie it up when Warren Foegele was sent off for tripping Calle Rosen 1 1/2 minutes later. The Blues got good pressure and some good chances — including a couple by David Perron — but couldn’t get one past Smith.
But the Blues did get a fifth goal past Smith with 11:24 to play when Barbashev became the fifth Blues player to hit the 20-goal mark this season. After a period of extended zone time, Ryan O’Reilly whipped a quick pass net front, and Barbashev tipped it in to make it a 5-5 game.
