Vladimir Tarasenko scored twice and added an assist as the visiting St. Louis Blues defeated the depleted Ottawa Senators 5-2 on Tuesday.
Robert Thomas had a goal and two assists and Pavel Buchnevich had three assists for the Blues, who won their second straight game. Brayden Schenn and Oskar Sundqvist also scored, and Ville Husso made 18 saves to earn the victory.
Tim Stutzle and Parker Kelly scored and Erik Brannstrom had two assists for the Senators, who lost for the third time in their past four games.
Matt Murray made 27 saves before exiting the game midway through the third period after Sundqvist fell on him. Anton Forsberg took over in the Ottawa crease and stopped all four shots he faced.
The Senators were missing several key players. Defenseman Thomas Chabot sat out with an undisclosed injury, joining key forwards Josh Norris (shoulder), Colin White (shoulder), Drake Batherson (ankle), and Shane Pinto (upper body) on the shelf with injuries.
The Blues outshot the Senators 14-7 in the first period and controlled most of the play.
The visitors struck first at 13:20 of the opening period. After Ryan O’Reilly controlled a faceoff, Schenn scored from the slot for his eighth goal in his past nine games.
The Senators tied the game 1-1 with 3:33 left in the period on a power play. Stutzle burst up the left wing and flew in alone to beat Husso.
The Blues regained the lead 2:15 into the second period on a power play when Buchnevich set up Tarasenko’s blast from the slot.
Thomas made it 3-1 just 3:19 later by converting Tarasenko’s cross-ice return pass.
Ottawa countered 1:19 later when Kelly scored off a high deflection of Brannstrom’s point shot.
The Blues boosted their lead to 4-2 midway through the third period. Justin Faulk shot from the blue line and Klim Kostin slid the puck across to Sundqvist for the tap-in.
Tarasenko scored into an empty net to make it 5-2 at 17:49.
–Field Level Media
