Oilers get rocked by Blues
Vladimir Tarasenko had two goals and two assists and got in a rare fight Tuesday night, helping the St. Louis Blues to an 8-3 victory over the Edmonton Oilers.
Brayden Schenn also had two goals and two assists, and Jake Allen stopped 26 shots for the NHLleading Blues.
Tarasenko’s fight came in the second period. In just the third scrap of his six-year career, Tarasenko tangled with Matt Benning and landed a solid right hand much to the crowd’s delight.
Tarasenko was reacting to Benning’s near-collision with Schenn that was almost a knee-on-knee hit.
It was Tarasenko’s second career Gordie Howe hat trick a goal, an assist and a fight in the same game. The other one came on Nov. 13, 2014, against Nashville.
St. Louis (16-5-1) scored two goals in each of the first two periods before adding four in a wideopen third. Tarasenko got his 11th goal 3:16 into the first period on two deflections. Shooting from the slot, he scored when his shot hit Connor McDavid’s stick and then Adam Larsson’s stick for a 1-0 lead.
Tarasenko has 14 points in his last 13 games (nine goals, five assists) against the Oilers.
The Blues made it 2-0 when Dmitrij Jaskin scored at 7:35. He outmuscled Ryan Strome for the puck in the right circle and hit a rising wrist shot threw sailed over Edmonton goalie Cam Talbot’s left shoulder.
The Oilers pulled Talbot, who faced just three shots, in favour of Lauren Brossoit. It was the third time this season Talbot, who has started 105 of Edmonton’s last 116 games, has been pulled.
Brossoit faced 37 shots and allowed six goals.
St. Louis went up 3-0 when Jaden Schwartz knocked in the rebound of a shot by Tarasenko. Brossoit kicked out Tarasenko’s shot and it went right to Schwartz, who snapped in a wrist shot from the high slot at 3:52 of the second.