Saad OT winner sends Blues past Oilers

ST. LOUIS (AP) — Brandon Saad scored 2:09 into overtime, and the St. Louis Blues beat the Edmonton Oilers 3-2 on Monday night.

Brayden Schenn scored twice and Jordan Binnington stopped 36 shots to help St. Louis improve to 8-2-1 in its last 11 games. The Blues are three points behind Los Angeles for the second wild card in the Western Conference.

“We're aware,” Binnington said about the wild card race. “But at the same time if we don't do our job, it doesn't matter. That's the mind game, and that's how we're channeling our focus right now.”

Mattias Ekholm and Leon Draisaitl scored, and Stuart Skinner made 26 saves for Edmonton, which had won three straight.

“I think in the second period it was just how many penalties we had,” Oilers coach Kris Knoblauch said. “That just took away our ability to build something. After we got the kills done and we were able to play five-on-five in the third period, I thought we did a pretty good job.”

Saad scored his 25th goal of the season for the win in the extra period.

“A really lucky bounce actually," Saad said. "I thought I was back-checking there, kind of hit their d-man’s top of his stick and got a good break.”

Draisaitl got his 39th on a pass from Connor McDavid with 5:25 remaining in the third period to tie the score 2-2. Both Drasaitl and McDavid extended their points streaks to eight games.

“After penalties having two superstars sitting on the bench and after we have a kill, we want to get those guys out there immediately,” Knoblouch said. “They came up big tonight. The play Connor made coming up that wall was incredible and obviously Leon's shot.”

Schenn one-timed a feed from Kasperi Kapanen for his second of the game and 17th of the season 1:44 into the third period to give St. Louis a 2-1 lead.

“Offensively, it's been a little bit up and down this year," Schenn said. "It's just nice to contribute and help the team. Everyone was solid tonight.”

Ekholm scored his ninth goal of the season on a slap shot from just inside the blue line 7:05 into the first period to give Edmonton a 1-0 lead.

Edmonton nearly extended the lead on two occasions. Ryan Nugent-Hopkins appeared to put Edmonton on top 2-0 when he tapped Zach Hyman’s rebound through Binnington’s legs 6:11 into the second period. However, St. Louis successfully challenged the call for goaltender interference.

Evander Kane also appeared to score with 3:47 left in the period, but the play was immediately blown dead and ruled no goal due to Kane striking the puck with a high stick.

Kane was assessed an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty for ripping off Tyler Tucker’s helmet in a fight, and Schenn scored his first goal of the game on the ensuing power play 8:15 into the second period to tie the score 1-1. Edmonton unsuccessfully challenged the play for goaltender interference.

“It was a long game," Skinner said. ”I think the refs had a couple tough choices to make. Sometimes the game kind of happens like that. You've just got to do your best to keep momentum on some sort of way. Momentum wasn’t on our side today. I thought the guy interfered with me but it's really hard for the ref to see it."

UP NEXT

Oilers: At Dallas on Wednesday night.

Blues: At Nashville on Thursday night to open a three-game road trip.

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AP NHL: https://www.apnews.com/hub/NHL