ST. LOUIS (AP) — Ryan O’Reilly and Vince Dunn scored to lead the St. Louis Blues to a 4-3 win over the Arizona Coyotes on Tuesday night.
Jordan Binnington made 30 saves and St. Louis earned its fourth straight win.
Justin Faulk and Mike Hoffman also scored for the Blues, who outshot Arizona 31-22 after being outshot 11-1 in the first 11 minutes of the game.
“We were just a step behind,” Blues coach Craig Berube said on his team’s slow start. “It was just a matter of playing quicker and playing harder.”
Darcy Kuemper made 28 saves for Arizona, which has not won consecutive games this season.
Christian Dvorak had two goals and Nick Schmaltz added a score for the Coyotes.
“I think it was just too sloppy,” Dvorak said. “We were too loose on them in our defensive end and just gave them too many odd-man rushes. We had to rely on Kuemp way too much.”
O’Reilly’s second goal of the season came with each team playing a man short and stretched St. Louis’ lead to 4-2. O’Reilly has a point in seven consecutive games.
“That 4-on-4 goal was a killer,” Coyotes coach Rick Tocchet said. “The one guy has him. There’s no point in having two guys going to the same puck there.”
Dunn’s third goal of the season gave St. Louis a 3-2 lead with 8:15 remaining in the second period. It was his second goal in three games after being a healthy scratch on Jan. 26.
“It’s always a surprise,” Dunn said about his benching. “I guess it was just a reset for me. I didn’t think I was playing that bad, but obviously I had a lot more to give.”
Schmaltz cut the Arizona deficit to 4-3, scoring his fourth goal of the season with 2:39 remaining in regulation with Kuemper pulled for an extra attacker.
Dvorak tied the game 2-2 with a power-play goal 6:25 into the second period, five seconds after St. Louis had killed off a two-man advantage.
Faulk put the Blues on top 2-1 when he skated to the front of the crease and pushed the puck underneath Kuemper’s pads 3:54 into the second period.
Hoffman tied the game 1-1 when he shot over Kuemper from the right circle for his second goal of the season and first since Jan. 18.
“The Hoff goal was big for us,” Faulk said. “They were kind of taking it to us. They were playing a little faster and making it tough on us to get going and we got a little bit of a boost there and we played a much better game after that.”
Dvorak scored his fourth goal of the season with 9:45 remaining in the first period, tipping in a feed from Tyler Pitlick.
POWER SURGE
Phil Kessel’s assist on Dvorak’s second goal was his 300th career point on the power play, making him the 15th U.S.-born player to accomplish the feat.
HOME ICE BOOST
The Blues expanded capacity to 1,400 fans after limiting attendance to 300 friends and family of players and staff, plus vaccinated first responders.
“It was great,” Hoffman said. “Hopefully down the road we can get even more in here. I thought it was awesome and even for 1,400 it was pretty loud out there.”
UP NEXT:
St. Louis hosts Arizona again Thursday night.
