Vladimir Tarasenko scored twice to power the St. Louis Blues past the visiting Arizona Coyotes 5-1 on Monday night.
Pavel Buchnevich had a goal and two assists for the Blues (39-20-10, 88 points), who have gone 4-0-1 in their past five games. Ivan Barbashev and Brayden Schenn also scored and David Perron and Robert Thomas each had two assists.
Ville Husso made 21 saves to earn the victory.
Nick Schmaltz scored and Ivan Prosvetov made 24 saves for the injury-depleted Coyotes (22-43-5, 49 points), who are 2-7-1 in their past 10 games.
The Blues outshot the Coyotes 10-7 in the scoreless first period and created the better scoring chances. Buchnevich and Brandon Saad each hit the right post while shooting toward an open side of the net.
Then the Blues scored three times during a span of 4:16 to take a 3-0 lead in the second period.
They scored their first goal during a delayed penalty call against the Coyotes. Calle Rosen partially fanned on his shot from the slot, but Barbashev put the rebound into the open left side of the net.
Just 1:17 later, Tarasenko scored by breaking to the left post and converting Thomas' centering pass from behind the net. Schenn pushed the lead to 3-0 with a power-play goal, scoring from the left faceoff dot off Perron's pass.
The Blues made it 4-0 with a short-handed goal with 5:21 left in the second period. Ryan O'Reilly stole the puck and slid it to Buchnevich, who finished off the two-on-one rush.
The best Arizona scoring chance of the period came in the waning seconds, when Husso denied Michael Carcone's breakaway with a glove save.
Schmaltz ended Husso's shutout bid with a rebound conversion 3:09 into the third period. Tarasenko restored the Blues' four-goal lead by scoring from the slot off Thomas' centering pass at 13:09.
--Field Level Media
Arizona | St. Louis | |
Nick Schmaltz 1 | Points | Pavel Buchnevich 3 |
Nick Schmaltz 1 | Goals | Vladimir Tarasenko 2 |
Cam Dineen 1 | Assists | Pavel Buchnevich 2 |
N/A | Power Play Goals | Brayden Schenn 1 |
N/A | Short Handed Goals | Pavel Buchnevich 1 |
Ivan Prosvetov .828 | Save Percentage | Ville Husso .955 |
Ivan Prosvetov 24 | Saves | Ville Husso 21 |
Team | Shots | Goals | Power Play | Penalty Kill | Penalty Mins | Face Offs Won |
Arizona | 22 | 1 | 0-2 | 1-2 | 4 | 21 |
St. Louis | 29 | 5 | 1-2 | 2-2 | 4 | 30 |