Thomas scores in 5th straight, Blues edge Coyotes in Zucker’s return

ST. LOUIS -- Robert Thomas scored in his fifth straight game for the St. Louis Blues in a 2-1 win against the Arizona Coyotes at Enterprise Center on Thursday.

Thomas put the Blues ahead 2-1 at 6:00 of the second period on a backdoor tap-in off a pass by Pavel Buchnevich.

"'Buchy’ has been making a ton of great plays," Thomas said. "Obviously a great pass. We could have got a couple more tonight. Great play by him."

Oskar Sundqvist scored, and Joel Hofer made 19 saves in his third straight victory for St. Louis (6-5-1), which finished a four-game homestand (3-1-0). Hofer made 10 saves in the third period.

"He was great," Thomas said of Hofer. "A couple times where we made some mistakes and he stood on his head and made the saves we needed him to make. Great job from him."

Lawson Crouse scored, and Karel Vejmelka made 31 saves for the Coyotes (6-6-1), who began a five-game road trip. Jason Zucker played 12:03 in his first game after missing the previous seven with an upper-body injury.

"We still did a lot of good stuff," Arizona coach Andre Tourigny said. “I think if there's something, we didn't go with enough shot volume in my opinion. I [would] have loved to get a little bit more dirty-job pucks on net and get inside. We're trying to score the clean goal. When you trail, often those clean goals are not there."

The Coyotes struggled to create shots after committing seven penalties.

"We were getting frustrated, and you can't take that many penalties and expect to win," Arizona defenseman Troy Stecher said. "We lost the game, which we're obviously disappointed about, but I think we took a lot of pride tonight in our game and sticking with it and showing a lot of heart and resilience. So, there's definitely a lot of good we can build off on this long road trip."

Sundqvist gave the Blues a 1-0 lead at 2:16 of the first period after tapping in a rebound from the crease.

Crouse tied it 1-1 at 15:44 with a power-play goal, coming off the bench and taking Clayton Keller's pass and beating Hofer with a wrist shot from the right circle.

"I thought we did a good job of responding and not getting overwhelmed when things weren't going our way," St. Louis defenseman Torey Krug said. "That's the sign of a team that's growing up a little bit. We've got to continue that. There's always that next play to be made, there's always going to be another power play when you do make those mistakes. We've got to continue with that."

The Coyotes were outshot 15-3 in the first period after killing off four minor penalties, including a full two minutes of a 5-on-3.

"They give us a chance to win that game," Tourigny said of Arizona’s penalty kill. "They give a chance to be in the game. They were rock solid."

St. Louis went 0-for-7 on the power play and is an NHL-worst 1-for-35 (2.9 percent).

"Obviously you want to be better, you want to help the team out, but at the end of the day, it's a big win," Thomas said. "Those guys have had our number lately, especially coming in here. I think we did a great job of limiting their offense, playing a smart game, especially in the third period."

NOTES: Hofer is 3-0-0 with a 1.34 goals-against average and .950 save percentage in his past three starts after allowing six goals on 42 shots in a 6-2 loss against the Coyotes on Oct. 19. ... Thomas, who has a five-game point streak (five goals, one assist) also has 10 points (six goals, four assists) over the past nine games. ... St. Louis defenseman Scott Perunovich played 14:51 and had three blocked shots in his first game since Oct. 27. ... Crouse has eight points (five goals, three assists) in his past seven games. ... Coyotes forward Matias Maccelli’s nine-game point streak ended (two goals, eight assists) in his 100th NHL game. ... Arizona forward Nick Bjugstad's seven-game point streak ended (one goal, six assists).