ST. LOUIS — Jaccob Slavin scored the game-winner at 7:53 of the third period and Jake Guentzel added two empty nets, leading the Carolina Hurricanes to a 5-2 victory over the St. Louis Cardinals.
“It was four on four and Sebastian (Aho) was in the middle with the puck,” Slavin said. “He hit me right on the tape and I just had to touch it. That’s about it.”
Slavin scored when both teams played with four players as Carolina won its fourth straight game and sixth in the last seven.
“I thought we had some good individual efforts and our goaltending was great,” Carolina coach Rod Brind’Amour said. “We had some really sophisticated plays at crucial moments. We did enough to get the win.”
Seth Jarvis and Jordan Martinook also scored for Carolina and Frederik Andersen made 29 saves to improve to 13-2-0.
Jordan Kyrou and Zack Bolduc scored for St. Louis and Jordan Binnington made 37 saves.
“I certainly can’t fault the effort. Our group effort certainly came through here tonight,” Blues interim head coach Drew Bannister said. “We made three mistakes on the first three goals and they made us pay, and that’s what good hockey teams do. We certainly created enough attack to take the lead or separate a little more, but we weren’t able to capitalize on some of the chances we had.
The Blues have won two in a row, but with Vegas’ 7-2 victory over Minnesota on Friday, St. Louis is eliminated from playoff contention.
“We here, no matter what the odds, where we were in the season, we never gave up and we’re not going to give up,” Robert Thomas said. “That’s what I’m taking away from this.”
Guentzel’s two goalless goals gave him 30 for the season.
“Listen, they were empty netters, but they were still a big part of the game,” Brind’Amour said. “The first one anyway. He knows how to make plays.”
Kyrou scored his 30th goal of the season on the power play at 5:31 of the second period when he connected on a shot from the top of the right faceoff circle off a pass from Thomas, who assisted on both St. Louis goals.
Kyrou has back-to-back 30-goal seasons for the first time in his career. Since 2000, only four other Blues have done so – Vladimir Tarasenko, Brad Boyes, Keith Tkachuk and Pavol Demitra.
Thomas now has 60 assists. He is the first Blues player to have 60 or more assists in a season since 1993-94, when Craig Janney had 68.
“It’s cool. I would rather play in the playoffs,” Thomas said. “You never know what’s going to happen here, but I think that’s my main priority.”
Jarvis scored his 31st goal at 8:07 when his wrist shot beat Binnington.
Bolduc scored late in the first period to take a 1-0 lead. Nick Leddy fed Bolduc, who was alone in the right faceoff circle, and got a slap shot from Andersen. Bolduc, 21, has scored in three consecutive games.
The Hurricanes made it 1-1 with 1:01 remaining on Martinook’s first goal.
NEXT:
Hurricanes: Play at Chicago on Sunday night.
Blues: Host Seattle on Sunday afternoon.
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