Kyrou scores twice, lifts Blues past Predators

NASHVILLE -- Jordan Kyrou scored twice for the St. Louis Blues in a 4-1 win against the Nashville Predators at Bridgestone Arena on Tuesday.

Kyrou has eight points (five goals, three assists) during a three-game winning streak.

“I think our top two lines are scoring a lot now,” Blues coach Jim Montgomery said. “So, they’re both leading us that way like you need to to have success that we’re having. And our other two lines are relishing their roles and playing really good hockey and chipping in offensively as well.”

Dylan Holloway had three assists, and Jake Neighbours and Justin Faulk each had a goal and an assist for the Blues (34-28-7), who are 10-2-2 in their past 14 and remained tied in points with the Vancouver Canucks for the second wild card into the Stanley Cup Playoffs from the Western Conference. Joel Hofer made 22 saves.

“I’ve got to give all the credit to the guys,” Hofer said. “We’re playing great hockey. It’s a lot of fun. We’ve got a lot of swag, and we’ve got to keep this going. We’re building something here. It’s a lot of fun.”

Brady Skjei scored for the Predators (25-34-8), who have lost three consecutive games (0-2-1). Juuse Saros made 18 saves.

“We just consistently can’t do certain things night after night,” Predators coach Andrew Brunette said. “It’s almost like it’s not much fun and we don’t want to do it. We gave them free offense.”

Faulk gave the Blues a 1-0 lead at 6:04 of the first period with a one timer from the left point on the power play.

“He’s confident,” Montgomery said. “He’s really strong on pucks on both ends of the ice, and he’s just keeping pucks alive in the offensive zone. Defensively, he’s winning 1-on-1, 1-on-2 battles and moving pucks north for us.”

Neighbours made it 2-0 at 18:16, taking a cross-slot pass from Faulk on the rush and going forehand to backhand around Saros to put the puck into an open net.

“It’s a good feeling,” Neighbours said. “We come to the rink with confidence and we know that no matter how we’re feeling or what the situation is that our foundation, our identity is going to be there. We’re going to be in games. I didn’t think we were on our A-game tonight by any means, but we’re finding ways right now and it feels good.”

Kyrou pushed it to 3-0 at 18:50 of the second period on a turnaround wrist shot from the left circle on the rush.

“That was a real gusty effort,” Montgomery said. “It didn’t feel like our players had their regular juice. You just could tell by how short the shifts were, but they dug in and made hard plays in hard areas. Our penalty kill was excellent. Our goaltender was excellent. Our [defensive corps] was fantastic. They just kept killing plays and making poised plays to get us out of our end repeatedly.”

Skjei’s one-timer from the high slot with a one second left in the second period cut the lead to 3-1.

“It wasn’t our best,” Skjei said. “I mean, we talked about it coming into it that this is a team that feeds off transition and turnovers. I think we were a little sloppy with the puck and kind of fed their transition a little bit, definitely to start.”

Kyrou made it 4-1 at 13:45 of the third period, tapping in a cross-crease pass from Holloway at the right post on a 2-on-1 rush.

“It’s tough right now,” Predators forward Zachary L'Heureux said. “I think we’ve just got to keep with it. Obviously, probably go over some video tomorrow, see what we can change and then just come ready to play with that same emotion and that same energy on Thursday.”

NOTES: Holloway has seven points (two goals, five assists) during a four-game point streak.