Faulk helps Blues defeat Islanders, move into second place in Central

ST. LOUIS --The St. Louis Blues extended their point streak to eight games with their fifth straight win, 6-1 against the New York Islanders at Enterprise Center on Saturday.

Justin Faulk had two goals and an assist, and Vladimir Tarasenko and Robert Thomas each had a goal and two assists for the Blues (42-20-10), who are 7-0-1 during the streak and moved into second place in the Central Division, two points ahead of the Minnesota Wild.
The Blues defeated the Wild 4-3 in overtime on Friday.
"Our team was focused tonight," St. Louis coach Craig Berube said. "They were ready to play. That was really good. With the energy that was spent in last night's game and the emotion, we had a lot today, which was good to see."

Jordan Binnington made 30 saves for St. Louis for his first win since Feb. 27.
"It felt good," Binnington said. "I've been trying to put in the work for a while now. We played a great game, great first period, great second period. It was fun to feel the flow of the game again, and a little bit of rhythm. It was a lot of fun. Good Saturday night in St. Louis."
Grant Hutton scored his first NHL goal, and Semyon Varlamov made 25 saves for the Islanders (33-29-9), who had won five of their previous six, including 2-1 at the Carolina Hurricanes on Friday.
"Just an uncharacteristic second period," New York captain Anders Lee said. "Too many odd-man rushes [against], there was a clear breakaway, 3-on-1s, gave 'Varly' no chance. You don't see that from us very often, and tonight they put it in on us. ... You give them that many clean looks, they're going to put them in the net."
Binnington was locked in early and gave the Blues a chance to get going, including making a point-blank save on Brock Nelson at 10:55 of the first period with the Islanders on a power play.
"He was great today, especially in the first period," St. Louis forward Ivan Barbashev said. "He made a really good couple of saves, especially the one on the power play. That probably kept us in the game, especially early on, but he was good today. We trust in him and he did a really good job for us tonight."

Nick Leddy gave the Blues a 1-0 lead at 14:21 of the first when he took a Thomas pass and scored with a wrist shot through a screen from the high slot.
Tarasenko made it 2-0 at 17:10, putting in a rebound of Colton Parayko's slap shot after Parayko intercepted an Islanders breakout attempt.
Faulk extended the lead to 3-0 at 4:05 of the second period with another wrist shot through a screen from the high slot. He then made it 4-0 at 5:41 when he batted in the puck midair after Varlamov made the initial save on Jordan Kyrou's shot off a 3-on-1.
Barbashev made it 5-0 at 16:57, poking in a loose puck along the goal line after Kyrou couldn't convert on a breakaway.
Hutton's shot from the point deflected off Parayko at 18:41 cut it to 5-1. It was Hutton's 13th NHL game.
"It was exciting, obviously," Hutton said. "It's unfortunate where the score was at that point in the game, but it was kind of a lucky goal. Just throw it on net. It must have gone off their defense, but it's a good feeling. It's always nice to come back into the room and guys saying congrats. Just an unfortunate outcome for us tonight."

Thomas scored on a one-timer from the left circle at 19:20 for the 6-1 final.
"I thought guys were dialed in pretty good," Berube said. "We really did a lot of good things in the offensive zone tonight. I thought we reloaded tonight. David Perron, I saw him, I don't know how many times, reload tonight, breaking plays up. We transported the puck and got it going the other way quickly. Pretty good effort all around."
The Islanders finished 3-2-0 on their road trip.
"I thought our first period was fine, our power play was good, we had a couple good looks, but they capitalized on their chances," New York coach Barry Trotz said. "When we got down by two, I thought we could kind of dig ourselves out of it in the second and early, we didn't. We turned pucks over, we were really light on the walls and just too many mental errors. It went south, I think, after the third and fourth goals."
NOTES:Islanders forward Casey Cizikas sat out after serving a one-game suspension for boarding Carolina Hurricanes defenseman Brendan Smith on Friday. ... Islanders forwards Mathew Barzal was minus-5 in 15:34 and Zach Parise was minus-4 in 16:40. … New York forward Andy Andreoff was recalled from Bridgeport of the American Hockey League Saturday and played 10:36 in his first game since Dec. 2. ... Thomas has 17 points (six goals, 11 assists) in an NHL career-high nine-game point streak, with seven multipoint games. ... Barbashev had an assist to give him eight points (four goals, four assists) in a six-game point streak. ... Faulk has 11 points (five goals, six assists) the past seven games. Only three defensemen in Blues history have a longer goal streak (Alex Pietrangelo, four, 2013-14; Brian Benning, four, 1986-87; Larry Sacharuk, four, 1974-75). ... St. Louis forward Pavel Buchnevich had an assist to give him nine points (four goals, five assists) in a six-game point streak and 12 points (six goals, six assists) his past nine games. ... Blues forward Brandon Saad had an assist in his 700th NHL game. ... Parayko's assist was his 200th NHL point. ... St. Louis has scored four or more goals in each of its past eight games. ... Kyrou returned after missing Friday due to illness; he had two assists in 13:29 and returned in the second period after being sent to the locker room following a hit by Islanders defenseman Zdeno Chara.