Nugent-Hopkins scores 200th NHL goal late, Oilers defeat Blues

ST. LOUIS -- Ryan Nugent-Hopkins scored his 200th NHL goal in the third period to break a tie for the Edmonton Oilers in a 3-1 win against the St. Louis Blues at Enterprise Center on Wednesday.

Nugent-Hopkins, who seconds prior couldn't beat Blues goalie Jordan Binnington from in tight, took a feed from Connor McDavid on a backdoor play and scored his fourth goal of the season at 13:44 to give the Oilers a 2-1 lead after Edmonton won a wall-battle for the puck behind the net.
"To be honest, I didn't know it was 200," Nugent-Hopkins, the No. 1 pick in the 2011 NHL Draft, said. "We just stuck with it the entire game. It was a hard-fought game the whole way through. Obviously, happy to get that go-ahead one there. We shut it down [after that]."

Zach Hyman had a goal and an assist, and Stuart Skinner made 37 saves for Edmonton (4-3-0), which played its road opener after starting the season with six straight at home.
"We got a great goaltending performance from Stuart Skinner," Oilers coach Jay Woodcroft said. "This was in a tough building. Nobody expects a game like that more than Stuart Skinner himself. For me, my relationship with him, I've seen him grow and he continues to grow. This is his true first year in the NHL. He has the confidence of the coaching staff. I started him because I thought he'd help us win the game. It's a credit to him to have that confidence from everybody."
Ryan O'Reilly scored, and Binnington made 25 saves for St. Louis (3-2-0), which has lost two straight. The Blues defeated the Oilers 2-0 on Oct. 22 in Edmonton.
"It's frustrating but we kind of got what we deserved," O'Reilly said. 'We didn't start off very good in the first period. The first period, we were on our heels just watching a lot. It was right there for us, especially that one play I thought was a hook, it's a turnover and an icing and it's in the back of the net. A bad bounce, unfortunately. We had good pressure in the third and I thought we had a chance to win it. Unfortunately, we didn't. We'll respond and get back to it tomorrow."
Jesse Puljujarvi gave Edmonton a 1-0 lead at 6:07 of the first period, deflecting a wrist shot from the high slot by Darnell Nurse after Warren Foegele skated around the net with speed and was able to center the puck.
O'Reilly's power-play goal with 4.4 seconds left in the second tied the game 1-1 when he batted in a puck off the right leg of Skinner and into the net after Brayden Schenn's initial shot was deflected by Justin Faulk.

The goal came on the Blues' 20th shot of the period after coach Craig Berube switched up the lines.
"It was better," Berube said. "I thought there was some good stuff around the net, rebound action. Their goalie played well, so did ours.
"[Skinner] made a couple saves and we missed the net a couple times on that. It's close, even with the goalie out, we had a couple good looks. You've just got to stick with it. Goal scoring's funny sometimes. You dry up sometimes. I know it doesn't happen to us a lot sometimes, but right now, it's at that point. We've got to simplify it and we've got to get some dirty goals. That's the bottom line."
Hyman scored into an empty net with 27 seconds remaining for the 3-1 final.
"I think we should be happy," Nugent-Hopkins said. "We had a few little breakdowns. We had 'Stu' when we needed him and the D-men made some big plays. We found a way to break them down. The first [road game] was a good one. We just have to keep on doing it."
NOTES: Oilers forward Leon Draisaitl had an assist to give him 19 points (six goals, 13 assists) in 19 games against the Blues. ... St. Louis is the only NHL team McDavid isn't averaging a point per game against; he has 17 points (six goals, 11 assists) in 20 games for an average of 0.85 points per game. ... The Blues penalty kill was 2-for-2 and is 11-for-11 this season. They are one of two teams (New York Islanders) to not have allowed a power-play goal. St. Louis also matched its record for consecutive kills to begin a season, also done Oct. 3-5, 2013 and Oct. 1-3, 1997. ... Schenn has 22 points (eight goals, 14 assists) in 21 games against Edmonton.