Blues defeat Oilers in OT, gain in West wild card

ST. LOUIS -- Brandon Saad scored at 2:09 of overtime for the St. Louis Blues in a 3-2 win against the Edmonton Oilers at Enterprise Center on Monday.

Saad jumped off the bench on a line change and snuck a shot through the legs of Stuart Skinner going in alone.

"A really lucky bounce actually," Saad said. "I thought I was backchecking there, kind of hit their d-man's top of his stick and got a good break."

Brayden Schenn scored twice, Kevin Hayes had two assists for the Blues (40-31-4), who moved within three points of the Los Angeles Kings for the second wild card into the Stanley Cup Playoffs from the Western Conference after the Kings lost 4-3 to the Winnipeg Jets on Monday. Jordan Binnington made 36 saves.

St. Louis is 8-2-1 in its past 11 games but was coming off a 4-0 home loss to the San Jose Sharks, who are last in the conference, on Saturday. 

"Definitely a good response, right, going up against a good team there," Binnington said. "I think we've been playing pretty good hockey as of late. Obviously that last game was frustrating. We know that and it was a good response by the group."

Mattias Ekholm had a goal and an assist and Skinner made 26 saves for the Oilers (45-23-5), whose three-game winning streak ended. Edmonton pulled within five points of the Vancouver Canucks for first in the Pacific Division.

"I think in the second period it was just how many penalties we had," Edmonton coach Kris Knoblauch said. "That just took away our ability to build something. After we got the kills done and we were able to play 5-on-5 in the third period, I thought we did a pretty good job."

Schenn scored a one-timer from the slot at 1:44 of the third period to give St. Louis a 2-1 lead after he and Kasperi Kapanen were sprung on a 2-on-1 when a Hayes clear eluded Oilers defenseman Evan Bouchard at the blue line.

"I don't know if it jumped over the (defenseman's) stick, but 'Kapi' made a great play," Schenn said. "A play like that, I see him looking at me. Kind of he stepped over the blue line, he just kind of opened up. I actually didn't get all of it, but luckily it went in."

Leon Draisaitl tied it 2-2 at 14:35 when Connor McDavid beat Blues defenseman Colton Parayko to the puck, then backhanded it to the far post for Draisaitl's one-timer.

"After penalties having two superstars sitting on the bench and after we have a kill, we want to get those guys out there immediately," Knoblouch said. "They came up big tonight. The play Connor made coming up that wall was incredible and obviously Leon's shot."

Ekholm made it 1-0 Edmonton at 7:05 on a one-time slap shot from the blue line that got through traffic past Binnington, including Oilers forward Mattias Janmark.

The Oilers had a goal waved off at 16:13 when Evander Kane was called for high-sticking the puck into the net. Video review confirmed the call on the ice that the stick was above the height of the cross bar.

Ryan Nugent-Hopkins thought he scored for the Oilers at 6:11 of the second period, but the Blues challenged for goalie interference, and video review determined that Zach Hyman's right skate clipped Binnington's stick prior to the goal, which was overturned.

"We just felt that [Hyman's] path through 'Binner's, I guess it was his blocker side, that opened 'Binner' up where he wasn't able to be able to recover and with his goal stick to be able to make that save," St. Louis coach Drew Bannister said. "That was our thought process there."

The Blues tied the game 1-1 at 8:15 when Schenn one-timed a shot from the right circle off a pass from Justin Faulk.

The Oilers challenged for goalie interference on the play, claiming Alexey Toropchenko interfered with Skinner but the goal was upheld after video review.

"It was a long game," Skinner said. "I think the refs had a couple tough choices to make. Sometimes the game kind of happens like that. You've just got to do your best to keep momentum on some sort of way. Momentum wasn’t on our side today. I thought the guy interfered with me, but it's really hard for the ref to see it."   

NOTES: Saad's goal was his seventh game-winner of the season, the most he's had since he scored an NHL career-high eight with the Chicago Blackhawks in 2017-18; he has seven points (five goals, two assists) in his past six games. ... McDavid's assist extended his point streak to eight games (20 points; four goals, 16 assists). The Oilers captain has seven points (one goal, six assists) in three games against St. Louis this season and 25 points (eight goals, 17 assists) in 24 games against the Blues. ... Schenn played in his 500th game with the Blues; the captain has 26 points (10 goals, 16 assists) in 25 games against Edmonton. ... Draisaitl has 13 points (six goals, seven assists) in an eight-game point streak. ... Faulk had an assist and was a plus-2 in a game-high 28:34, the St. Louis defenseman's 900th in the NHL (341 with the Blues, 559 with the Carolina Hurricanes).