Schwartz, O’reilly excel as Blues bombard Minnesota
ST. LOUIS — Jaden Schwartz and Ryan O’reilly each scored twice as the St. Louis Blues beat the Minnesota Wild 9-1 on Friday.
Justin Faulk and Sammy Blais each had a goal and two assists, and Zach Sanford, Jake Walman and Ivan Barbashev also scored for the Blues, who posted a season high for goals.
Jordan Binnington made 23 saves as St. Louis won its second straight game. Zach Parise scored, and Kaapo Kahkonen stopped 29 shots for the Wild, who allowed a season high in goals. Minnesota has given up 17 goals in its past three games.
Sanford gave the Blues the lead 92 seconds into the game. It was just the 14th time this season that St. Louis scored first, and it improved to 8-1-5 when taking an early lead.
■ Avalanche 2, Ducks 0: At Anaheim, Calif., Valeri Nichushkin scored the go-ahead goal with 2:48 left in the second period, and Jonas Johansson stopped 28 shots in his first shutout as Colorado won for the sixth time in seven games.
■ Sharks 5, Kings 2: At San Jose, Calif., Brent Burns had three assists to back Martin Jones, who stopped 32 shots in San Jose’s fifth win in six games and Los Angeles’ fourth loss in five games.
■ Rangers 4, Islanders 1: At Uniondale, N.Y., Alexandar Georgiev had 31 saves in his first start since
March 19 to improve to 7-1-0 against the Islanders and halt their fivegame win streak.
■ Capitals 4, Sabres 3: At Buffalo, N.Y., Justin Schultz had a goal and two assists to back Vitek Vanecek, who stopped 30 shots in his NHL rookie-leading 16th win.
■ Penguins 6, Devils 4: At Newark, N.J., Bryan Rust had two goals and Sidney Crosby a goal and two assists for Pittsburgh in its eighth win in 11 games.