Blues score 3 in 32 seconds, shut out Islanders

ST. LOUIS -- The St. Louis Blues scored three goals in a franchise-record 32-second span in the second period of a 4-0 win against the New York Islanders at Enterprise Center on Thursday.

Brandon Saad gave the Blues a 1-0 lead at 4:38 of the second on the power play with a shot from the slot off a pass from Oskar Sundqvist. Pavel Buchnevich extended it to 2-0 seven seconds later at 4:45 on a redirection over Islanders goalie Semyon Varlamov. Buchnevich scored again 25 seconds later at 5:10 to make it 3-0 when he one-timed a shot from the right circle.

"It happened pretty quick," St. Louis center Robert Thomas said. "I think it's going to be a tough record to beat. That was pretty special."

The previous record for the three-fastest goals scored by the Blues was 36 seconds in a 6-5 win against the Tampa Bay Lightning on April 15,1993 when Kevin Miller scored, and Bob Bassen scored twice.

"You don't mind it; you don't mind it as a goalie," Blues goalie Jordan Binnington said. "It just happens so fast. I heard it was the fastest three. It was a special night, it was fun. The building was loud, guys were playing hard. It's a big win, too, before we get some road games here."

Buchnevich scored a natural hat trick, Thomas had three assists and Binnington made 20 of his 38 saves in the second period for the Blues (30-24-2), who had lost two in a row and three of their past four. Binnington’s shutout was his third of the season and 15th in the NHL.

"'Binner' was outstanding," St. Louis coach Drew Bannister said. "We made it way more difficult on him and ourselves than it needed to be. He played outstanding."

Varlamov made 21 saves for the Islanders (23-19-14), who have lost four of their past five (1-2-2).

"It's all about puck management," New York coach Patrick Roy said. "The PK, we just need to clear and all of a sudden, you give up a goal and you win the face-off at center ice and then again, you don't manage that puck well and the line is very, very, very thin.

"It's a fine line between making plays and not making plays. And obviously I thought we tried to battle back in that game and their goalie was really good. I mean, it's hard to play catch-up hockey in situation like this."

The Islanders felt they were playing well until St Louis’ spurt.

"You're going to have nights like that where you're playing really good hockey and you can't find a way to get one,” New York captain Anders Lee said. “But at the same time, we had to find three and I think that's the bigger picture here tonight is we failed to get out of that minute. Our line went out there and didn't get it done and had two against us in crucial moments. So that's the part that's frustrating that we didn't execute that.

“But on a night like this, where Binnington’s playing good hockey and we're getting our chances, that's a one- or maybe two-goal [game], it's still possible. But even at the end of the day, we still weren't able to get one by him. He played a pretty solid game."

Buchnevich completed his fourth NHL hat trick with an empty-net goal at 9:21 of the third period on a backhand from center ice after the Islanders pulled Varlamov during a 4-on-4.

"We got the two points and that's important," Buchnevich said. "Anybody can score. Good for your own confidence. At the end of the day, it's still two points."

NOTES: Thomas has eight points (one goal, seven assists) during a four-game point streak and 21 points (three goals, 18 assists) over the past 13 games. ... St. Louis forward Zack Bolduc, the 17th pick in the 2021 NHL Draft, had one shot on goal in 9:57 of ice time in his NHL debut. ... Blues defenseman Scott Perunovich had one shot on goal in 15:50 of ice time after missing the past seven games with a lower-body injury. ... New York center Kyle MacLean played won four of five face-offs in 8:57 after being recalled from Bridgeport of the American Hockey League on Thursday; he replaced forward Casey Cizikas, who missed the game with an upper-body injury.