Kevin Hayes scored two goals and added an assist as the St. Louis Blues defeated the visiting New Jersey Devils 4-1 Friday night.
Jake Neighbours and Robert Thomas also scored for the Blues, who snapped a two-game losing streak. Winning goaltender Jordan Binnington made 33 saves and earned an assist.
Curtis Lazar scored the Devils’ only goal, and goaltender Akira Schmid made 31 saves.
Devils star Jack Hughes sustained an upper-body injury midway through the first period. He raced in on a clean break, fired a shot on Binnington, then lost an edge and crashed hard into the end boards.
St. Louis built an 11-7 shot advantage while dictating play in the first period. Schmid had to stop Brandon Saad on a short-handed rush and Jordan Kyrou breaking in from the right wing to keep the game scoreless.
The Blues finally broke through at 7:12 of the second period. Neighbours cut down the middle and converted a backhand pass from Sammy Blais, beating Schmid to his stick side.
Hayes put the Blues up 2-0 less than three minutes later. Jakub Vrana fired a shot on goal, and Nick Leddy put the rebound back on goal but missed. Hayes was able to convert on a second follow-up shot.
New Jersey cut the Blues’ lead to 2-1 with 3:21 left in the second period. Alexander Holtz put a shot on goal, and Lazar cut across the top of the crease to reach his rebound conversion around Binnington.
Saad had a chance to restore the Blues’ two-goal lead with 6:02 to play, but he shot wide of the empty net from a few feet out. Tyler Toffoli had a chance to tie the game with 3:25 left, but he misfired on his point-blank shot.
Hayes scored into an empty net to ice the game with 1:37 left. After Hayes just missed scoring another empty-net goal, Thomas tacked on an empty-net tally.
–Field Level Media
