Blues stay hot with win over Predators

ST. LOUIS (AP) — Jordan Kyrou scored his 30th goal of the season, and Robert Thomas had three assists to help the St. Louis Blues beat the Nashville Predators 4-1 on Sunday night for their sixth straight win.

Brayden Schenn, Alexandre Texier and Justin Faulk also scored, and Jordan Binnington made 31 saves for the Blues who now hold a four-point lead over Calgary for the second Western Conference wild-card spot.

Filip Forsberg scored, and Justus Annunen made 14 saves for Nashville, which has lost five of its last six games.

Faulk’s fourth goal of the season put St. Louis ahead 3-1 10:30 into the third period.

Forsberg scored his 28th goal of the season on a power play 1:04 into the second period to cut Nashville’s deficit to 2-1.

Texier scored his first goal since Feb. 5 on a power play to give St. Louis a 2-0 lead with 3:03 remaining in the first period.

Kyrou scored 12:13 into the first period to put St. Louis on top 1-0. Kyrou has scored 30 goals for the third consecutive season.

Takeaways

Predators: Nashville’s playoff hopes are mathematically hanging by a thread as the Predators trail St. Louis for the second Western Conference wild-card spot by 21 points with 12 games to play.

Blues: Dalibor Dvorsky, the 10th overall pick in the 2023 NHL Entry Draft, made his NHL debut with Pavel Buchnevich (illness) and Oskar Sundqvist (maintenance day) scratched.

Key moment

Blues forward Zack Bolduc was issued a major penalty and a game misconduct with 6:27 remaining in the third period for cross-checking Nick Blankenburg in retaliation for Blankenburg sticking out his knee to trip Thomas. Blankenburg received a minor penalty on the play.

Key stat

St. Louis is 12-2-2 in 16 games since returning from the Four Nations Face-Off

Up next

Nashville plays at Carolina and St. Louis hosts Montreal on Tuesday night.

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