Historic start thrusts Blues past Flyers

[April 05, 2019]  Alexander Steen had two goals and an assist as the St. Louis Blues made franchise history while scoring five times within the first 10 minutes in a 7-3 win over the Philadelphia Flyers on Thursday night.

Alex Pietrangelo recorded three assists and Vladimir Tarasenko added two for the Blues (44-28-9, 97 points), who won their sixth straight at home and sit tied with Winnipeg and one point back of Nashville for the Central Division lead. Amid an 8-1-2 stretch, St. Louis concludes the regular season at home against Vancouver on Saturday.

Philadelphia (37-36-8, 82 points), meanwhile, enters its finale Saturday at home versus Carolina a loser in six of seven. However, the Flyers didn't make it easy on St. Louis, which, according to the team, set a club record for the quickest five goals (9:41) to open a regular-season game -- topping the previous mark of 13:45 from Jan. 3, 1970.

Ivan Barbashev scored his 14th goal after batting home a backhander past ex-Blue Brian Elliott 2:49 into the contest. Shortly after, Ryan O'Reilly tied a career high with his 28th goal on the power play off a pinpoint pass from David Perron.

St. Louis was far from finished, as Steen ended a five-game point drought by recording a shorthanded goal 5:33 into the first on what started as a 2-on-1 break with Oskar Sundqvist.

Philadelphia cut it to 3-1 barely a minute later when Oskar Lindblom scored for the third time in four games.

But at 6:58, the Blues' Pat Maroon tipped one past Elliott, who was pulled after yielding four goals on five shots.

Blues goaltender Jordan Binnington (50) makes a save during the first period against the Philadelphia Flyers at Enterprise Center. Mandatory Credit: Jeff Curry-USA TODAY Sports

Once again, Philadelphia answered, this time with James van Riemsdyk's 27th.

St. Louis made it 5-2 when Perron scored on the power-play 9:41 into the first.

The Flyers capped the scoring on the crazy period with 42.4 seconds left as Claude Giroux went top-shelf by rookie Jordan Binnington (26 saves) for his 22nd of the campaign.

Brayden Schenn extended St. Louis' lead to 6-3 with a goal 13:06 into a rather quiet second period.

Steen added the final tally at 10:34 into the third.

Philadelphia's Carter Hart made 27 saves in a relief role.

--Field Level Media

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