Blais scores twice, Blues defeat Capitals

WASHINGTON -- Sammy Blais scored twice for the St. Louis Blues in a 5-2 win against the Washington Capitals at Capital One Arena on Friday.

Blais, who was acquired by St. Louis in a trade with the New York Rangers on Feb. 9, has four goals in his past five games. It was his first multigoal game in the NHL.
"He was strong in the offensive zone," Blues coach Craig Berube said of Blais. "That's his game. When he gets there, he's hanging onto pucks, being around the net. He's a heavy guy and he ended up with two goals tonight because he's at the net."
Martin Fehervary and Nicklas Backstrom scored, and Darcy Kuemper made 17 saves for the Capitals (33-30-7). They remained five points behind the Pittsburgh Penguins and New York Islanders, who are tied for the first wild card into the Stanley Cup Playoffs from the Eastern Conference.
"We have no wiggle room right now," Washington forward Conor Sheary said. "So, the fact that we weren't able to come out and be ready for this one and try to move up the standings is unfortunate. So, at this point, we've got to get rolling and if we don't, it's going to end quickly for us."

Joel Hofer made 32 saves in his first NHL start of the season, and Brayden Schenn had a goal and an assist for the Blues (30-33-5), who lost their previous two games, including 8-5 to the Minnesota Wild on Wednesday. Brandon Saad had two assists.
"The other night against [Minnesota] it was one stretch of time in the second period where it kind of collapsed on us," Berube said. "But overall, I think we've had the energy and the compete level that we've wanted, and our team's bonding together. We've got some new faces, and I think it's going in the right direction."
Blais gave St. Louis a 1-0 lead at 1:54 of the first period, tapping in a feed from Saad at the right side of the crease.
Jordan Kyrou made it 2-0 on a breakaway at 4:51 of the second period after a pass from former Washington forward Jakub Vrana.

Kasperi Kapanen extended the lead to 3-0 at 9:25, scoring on a slap shot from the right face-off circle on the rush.
"From a defensive standpoint, we made really big mental mistakes on the goals and some of the big chances they had," Capitals coach Peter Laviolette said. "They didn't have a ton, but the ones that we gave up, they're breakaways or partial breakaways or odd-man rushes, and things that can happen."
Blais scored again at 14:36 when he scored on a wrist shot from between the circles to make it 4-0. The puck was lodged in the net and was not immediately visible, but a video review determined Blais scored.
"It was behind the middle post, so it went up and got stuck there," Blais said. "I thought it hit the post and it went out, but I went behind the net and I saw it. That's when I saw it was in."

Fehervary cut it to 4-1 at 5:47 of the third period, scoring into an open net following a pass across the slot by Alexander Alexeyev.
Backstrom made it 4-2 at 17:14 with Kuemper pulled for an extra attacker, but Schenn scored an empty-net goal at 18:21 for the 5-2 final.
"It's obviously not the way we want to play," Backstrom said. "Obviously sometimes you get a nice comeback like last game [5-4 in a shootout against the Buffalo Sabres], but it's too hard. It's too hard in this league to just chase every game. I mean, it's not doable."
Hofer, 22, was recalled from Springfield of the American Hockey League after Jordan Binnington was suspended two games for roughing and unsportsmanlike conduct Wednesday. It was Hofer's third NHL start and first since Nov. 13, 2021.
"There's obviously a lot of uncertainties with being in the AHL all year and the first game in a long time," Hofer said, "but I thought the guys played really well in front of me and kind of kept them to the outside. It's super nice to get the win."
NOTES: St. Louis is 6-0-1 in its past seven against Washington. … Blues forward Pavel Buchnevich (assist) extended his point streak to 11 games (19 points; seven goals, 12 assists), which is the longest by a St. Louis player this season. … Kyrou has a six-game point streak (five goals, four assists). … Capitals forward Dylan Strome saw his NHL career-high six-game point streak end (10 points; three goals, seven assists).