Kyrou has 3 points in Blues win against Senators 

OTTAWA -- Jordan Kyrou had a goal and two assists for the St. Louis Blues in a 5-2 win against the Ottawa Senators at Canadian Tire Centre on Thursday.

“I was really happy with Jordan’s game,” St. Louis interim coach Drew Bannister said. “I mean, that's the way he has to play if we're going to move forward. Like, we need him at his best, and I thought tonight he was real good again, so that's a positive thing because I know he's been struggling a little bit with his confidence in his game. It was nice to see that he was back to his old self here tonight.”

Jake Neighbours scored twice, Brandon Saad had a goal and an assist, and Joel Hofer made 37 saves for the Blues (37-30-3), who are 5-1-0 in their past six games. St. Louis is four points behind the Vegas Golden Knights for the second wild card into the Stanley Cup Playoffs from the Western Conference. The Golden Knights defeated the Seattle Kraken 3-1 on Thursday.

“It was a pretty special performance by [Hofer],” Saad said. “I mean, not our best job, but it was good to find a way to get it done, and Hofer was obviously unbelievable tonight.

“You could see he was feeling it. It's nice that we got a couple and chipped in there, but he made some huge saves. We could have been down by a few goals after the first, so anytime a goalie is playing like that it gives you confidence.”

Mark Kastelic and Dominik Kubalik scored, and Anton Forsberg made 23 saves for the Senators (28-36-4), who have lost three straight after a three-game winning streak.

“I think [Hofer] was the difference in the hockey game,” Ottawa interim coach Jacques Martin said. “There’s no doubt when you look at the number of chances we had. I think it was 22-12 in our favor.”

Ottawa is 18 points behind the Detroit Red Wings for the second wild card in the Eastern Conference.

“At this point, we’re probably not trying to worry about wins and losses, but just feeling good every night about our performance,” Kastelic said. “Buy into what the coaches are telling us and learning from our mistakes so they don’t happen again. I think those are what we can try to hang our hat on these last 15 [games].”

Saad gave St. Louis a 1-0 lead at 11:54 of the first period when he put in a rebound at the right post off Kyrou’s one-timer from the high slot.

Colton Parayko made it 2-0 at 14:57, scoring on a centering pass from Kyrou in front.

Kastelic cut it to 2-1 at 4:34 of the second period, finishing a cross-ice pass from Mathieu Joseph on a 3-on-2 rush.

“It’s never easy going down two to start the game,” Kastelic said. “I think once you get in that position, you’re always just feeling like you’re clawing yourself back into it and that’s never an easy task to overcome.”

Neighbours pushed it to 3-1 at 13:11 when he put in a loose puck in front.

Kubalik made it 3-2 at 1:58 of the third period on the power play, putting in a rebound at the left post past a sprawling Hofer.

“It is what it is. It’s hockey,” Kubalik said. “Sometimes you have five shots and you score four, and sometimes you have 30 [shots] and you can’t really get it in. So, we had some posts, some rebounds, [their] goalie made some good saves. … I thought that we were going to score a lot more, but obviously we didn’t.”

Kyrou pushed it to 4-2 at 5:43, picking up a loose puck in the slot with his back to the net, spinning around and beating Forsberg with a wrist shot.

“I felt like I was trying to play quicker without the puck and be more aggressive on the forecheck and just get on guys and stuff,” Kyrou said. “I feel like when I do that, the rest of my game kind of comes along.”

The Senators outshot the Blues in each period (12-7 in the first, 13-9 in the second, 14-11 in the third).

“We had some momentum [in the third period], but the fourth goal hurt us,” Martin said. “But in the meantime, it shouldn’t have been 2-0 for them. We had plenty of chances in the first two periods; we should’ve been ahead.”

Neighbours scored an empty-net goal at 18:32 for the 5-2 final.

NOTES: Neighbours has 24 goals this season, tied with Pavel Buchnevich for most on the Blues. He can become the youngest player in franchise history (21) to lead the club in goals at the end of a season. … St. Louis forward Zach Dean played 8:41 in his NHL debut.