Jordan Binnington made 23 saves for his 11th career shutout as the visiting St. Louis Blues defeated the Edmonton Oilers 2-0 on Saturday.
Torey Krug and Justin Faulk scored for the Blues, who have won their first three games to open the season.
Jack Campbell stopped 20 of 21 shots for the Oilers, who are just 2-3 during their season-opening six-game homestand.
The Blues controlled the first eight minutes of the game and scored the game’s first goal on a power play. Vladimir Tarasenko dropped a pass back to Krug at the center point for a one-time blast that beat Campbell for a 1-0 lead.
Blues winger Jordan Kyrou nearly made it 2-0 with a clean break-in from the right wing 8:36 into the game, but Campbell stuck with him and made a terrific glove save.
Kyrou had another golden opportunity seven minutes into the second period, but he hit the left post while attacking from the left circle. Then Campbell robbed an unattended Kyrou from point-blank range with eight minutes left in the period after Ryan O’Reilly made a cross-crease pass to create the opportunity.
The Oilers outshot the Blue 10-5 in the second period and stepped up their pressure late. But Binnington made a left-arm save on Ryan Nugent-Hopkins to keep the Blues up 1-0.
Binnington stepped out to deny Zach Hyman’s snap shot off a 3-on-2 rush 6 1/2 minutes into the third period. Then Binnington held his angle to stop Evander Kane from the left circle nine minutes into the period.
Midway through the period the Oilers finally got their only power-play opportunity of the game, but the Blues killed it off without incident.
The Oilers pulled Campbell for an extra attacker for the final two minutes, and Faulk scored into the empty net from the length of the rink with 1:02 left to make it 2-0.
–Field Level Media
