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Allen made 35 saves to earn his first victory
at Enterprise Center since Jan. 3, and the Blues completed a
sweep of their four-game homestand. Brayden Schenn and Mackenzie
MacEachern scored goals to support him.
James Neal scored and Mikko Koskinen stopped 42 of 44 shots for
the Oilers, who have just three victories in their past 11 games
(3-7-1).
Allen made 20 of his previous 21 starts on the road, dating to
last season, when he lost the starting job to Jordan Binnington.
In the 2018-19 season, he posted an .878 save percentage and
3.65 goals-against average at home and produced vastly better
ratios (.924, 2.26) on the road. He had lost his only previous
home start this season before Wednesday.
The Blues outshot the Oilers 15-10 during a busy first period in
which both teams created multiple scoring chances. Troy Brouwer,
who joined the St. Louis lineup with Tyler Bozak ill, came
closest to scoring with an early shot off the inside of the
right post.
The Oilers killed off a five-on-three Blues power-play in the
second period but fell behind 1-0 at 8:04 when Vince Dunn fed
Schenn for a clean break-in on Koskinen at even strength. Schenn
collected his 15th goal of the season.
Later in the period, Blues forward Robert Thomas rang a
power-play shot off the crossbar, then Oilers defenseman Adam
Larsson kept the score 1-0 by blocking Justin Faulk's shot
toward an otherwise open net.
On another near miss, St. Louis' Jaden Schwartz poked a
point-blank shot through Koskinen's pads, only to see the
netminder reach back and stop the puck at the goal line.
The Blues finally boosted their lead to 2-0 with 13:37 to play
in the third period. Ryan O'Reilly pivoted with the puck behind
the net and fed MacEachern breaking to the goal, and MacEachern
netted his sixth goal of the season.
Neal cut the lead to 1:50 left with his 16th goal. He redirected
the puck into the net after teammate Zack Kassian ran into
Allen, who left the crease to play the puck.
The unsuccessful Blues challenge allowed the Oilers to finish
the game on the power play, but Edmonton failed to tie the
score.
--Field Level Media
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