Hurricanes top Blues for 4th straight win, gain in Metropolitan race

ST. LOUIS -- Jaccob Slavin scored the go-ahead goal in the third period for the Carolina Hurricanes, who rallied for a 5-2 win against the St. Louis Blues at Enterprise Center on Friday.

Slavin scored on a backdoor play off a high slot pass from Sebastian Aho at 7:53 of the third period to break a 2-2 tie.

"It was 4-on-4 and Sebastian was in the middle," Slavin said. "He hit me right on the tape and I just had to touch it. That's about it."

Jake Guentzel scored two empty-net goals at 17:20 and 19:10 for the 5-2 final.

Slavin and Seth Jarvis each had a goal and an assist for the Hurricanes (51-22-7), who won their fourth in a row to move within one point of the New York Rangers for first in the Metropolitan Division with two games remaining for each. 

Frederik Andersen made 29 saves.

"I thought we had some real good individual efforts, and our goaltending was great," Carolina coach Rod Brind'Amour said. "We had some real high end plays at crucial times. We did enough to get the win."

Jordan Kyrou and Zack Bolduc scored for the Blues (42-33-5), who were eliminated from Stanley Cup Playoff contention when the Vegas Golden Knights defeated the Minnesota Wild 7-2 on Friday. Jordan Binnington made 37 saves, and Robert Thomas had two assists.

"Us guys in here, no matter what the odds are, kind of where we were at in the season, we never gave up and we won't give up," Thomas said. "That's what I'm taking away from this."

Bolduc's third goal in as many games made it 1-0 at 17:34 of the first period. After a face-off win, Nick Leddy fed the forward for a one-timer from the bottom of the right circle.

Jordan Martinook tied it 1-1 at 18:59 when Kasperi Kapanen shot wide of Andersen from the right side, allowing Carolina to break out, and Martinook's wrist shot from the high slot beat Binnington low on the blocker side.

"We certainly created enough offense to grab a lead or separate a little bit more but we failed to kind of cash in on some of the chances that we had," St. Louis coach Drew Bannister said.

Kyrou's 30th of the season gave the Blues the lead again at 2-1 on the power play at 5:41 of the second period, a shot from the high slot after a pass from Pavel Buchnevich.

Jarvis tied it 2-2 at 8:07 when the forward skated in from the neutral zone, cut to the left circle and beat Binnington high to the glove side.

"Yeah, we were behind the whole game," Slavin said. "We were playing hard. Frederik made some big saves for us. We continued to put the stress on their end and we got a goal out of it. That sealed the deal."

NOTES: Carolina defensemen Jalen Chatfield and Brett Pesce, and forwards Jordan Staal and Teuvo Teravainen were late scratches due to what Brind'Amour said were guys being "dinged up." They were replaced by defenseman Tony DeAngelo and Scott Morrow, who made his NHL debut, and forwards Brendan Lemieux and Jesperi Kotkaniemi. ... Morrow, a second-round pick in the 2021 NHL Draft, had three shots on goal and was plus-1 in 12:45. ... Thomas extended his point streak to five games (two goals, nine assists), including four straight multipoint games. He also reached 60 assists to become the first Blues player since Craig Janney (68) in 1993-94 to reach the mark. ... Guentzel has 12 points (six goals, six assists) in a seven-game point streak and 24 points (eight goals, 16 assists) in 16 games since the Hurricanes acquired him from the Pittsburgh Penguins. ... Slavin has six points (one goal, five assists) in a four-game point streak. ... Kyrou has eight points (five goals, three assists) in a five-game point streak and 16 points (nine goals, seven assists) the past 11 games. ... Aho was plus-4 in 20:03 and has 20 points (10 goals, 10 assists) in his past 14 games.