Saad scores natural hat trick, Blues shut out Senators

ST. LOUIS -- Brandon Saad had a natural hat trick for the St. Louis Blues in a 4-0 win against the Ottawa Senators at Enterprise Center on Friday.

“Ever since [the holiday] break, I started to feel better every game,” Saad said. “I felt like it was only a matter of time, so tonight felt good for sure.”

Brayden Schenn scored, and Jordan Binnington made 20 saves for his 18th NHL shutout for the Blues (19-17-4), who have won two straight and four of five, including a 6-2 win against the Chicago Blackhawks in the Discover NHL Winter Classic on Tuesday.

“[Blues coach Jim Montgomery] was saying, ‘Let’s focus on the game [Friday],” St. Louis forward Pavel Buchnevich said. “Everybody understands it’s an emotional night there and the game’s on New Year’s, family there, blah, blah, blah. You just have to be ready for the game. Ottawa’s a desperate team and they will come hard, and we have to be ready for them. We got two points today and everybody’s happy.”

Anton Forsberg made 21 saves for the Senators (19-17-2), who lost at the Dallas Stars 4-2 on Thursday, their fourth loss in five games after a six-game winning streak. The Senators played the eighth of a season-long nine-game road trip (4-4-0).

“We were just slow to start and that’s it,” Ottawa defenseman Thomas Chabot said. “The chances we gave them were Grade A’s. In the NHL as a group, we would have wanted to play a lot better than that. But in the big picture, you look, we’ve been on the road for a long time and playing .500 hockey on the road isn’t bad. Obviously, it’s not what we want, but there’s some positives to that. At the end of the day, we’re excited to go home tonight.”

Schenn made it 1-0 at 7:26 of the first period, beating Forsberg on a breakaway with the backhand off a pass from Dylan Holloway.

Saad’s first goal in 20 games made it 2-0 at 15:50, also on a breakaway when the forward outraced Ottawa defenseman Nick Jensen to a puck and sliding a backhand through Forsberg’s legs.

“That is the best example that you can have, that there is another level of belief in himself in his confidence and also in what we’re trying to accomplish here as a team,” Montgomery said of Saad’s determination on the goal.

Saad said, “I was thinking forecheck at first and then I saw I got a slow start to get to it. Closer and closer I got to it, I felt like I could beat [Jensen] and obviously it worked out well.”

Saad made it 3-0 at 14:15 of the second period off a rush, beating Forsberg through the pads from the left circle.

Chabot thought he had cut the deficit to 3-1 for the Senators with 33.4 seconds left in the second, but the Blues challenged the play for offside and video review determined that Ottawa forward Nick Cousins preceded the puck into the zone.

"Yeah, it was [a pretty easy call to make]," Montgomery said. "As soon as the puck went in, already they were saying, 'I think this was offside, hold on.' Ten seconds later, they confirmed it."

Saad completed his third NHL hat trick at 18:07 for the 4-0 final, keeping the puck on a 2-on-1 with Alexandre Texier.

“I told ‘Tex’ that I wanted that one pretty badly,” Saad said, “so I’m happy it went in.”

The Senators won’t play again until Tuesday when they complete the marathon road trip against the Detroit Red Wings. The trip was necessitated by the IIHF World Junior Championship being played in Ottawa.

“I’m not going to use that as an excuse,” Senators coach Travis Green said. “They get four out of their [top players], and we’ve got to find a way to get some more offense out of our group. We're playing a little defensively, but we've got to create more. It’ll be good to get back home after a trip like this, where, yes, out of the past eight games, you come out .500, but now back home for a little bit before heading back to Detroit. Yeah, it’ll be good to get a couple practices under our belt and get back on the road for another game.

NOTES: Saad didn’t have a point in his previous 10 games and in the 19 games prior, he had just two assists. … Blues defenseman Ryan Suter played 20:44 and was a plus-2 in his 1,484th NHL game, which tied him for 25th all-time with Carolina Hurricanes coach Rod Brind'Amour. … Holloway has eight points (four goals, four assists) in his past five games.