The St. Louis Blues and Edmonton Oilers brought a playoff-like atmosphere to the rink on Wednesday, and the gloves were dropped early in their game.
Oilers right-winger Corey Perry was in front of Blues goaltender Jordan Binnington when the netminder took the forward down in front of the net. Binnington took a few swipes before the two players were separated.
Perry and Blues left-winger Jake Neighbours took over from there and started to throw punches at each other. It had only been about nine minutes into the game.
Connor Brown scored a late goal to put Edmonton up 4-3. St. Louis could not equalize in the final seconds, and the Oilers took home the close victory.
“That’s what it’s about. Guys stepping up,” Oilers star Connor McDavid said after the game, via the team’s website. “We’ve had different guys step up throughout this kind of injury bug and sickness bug, and a lot of guys are stepping up and playing good hockey and contributing.
“It hasn’t been easy, but I’ve thought the guys have battled hard.”
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Brown had two goals in the win – both on assists from McDavid.
Blues head coach Jim Montgomery lamented not being able to get coverage on McDavid.
“We didn’t do a good enough job covering McDavid, and we didn’t do a good enough job protecting our net front. The net-front battle was the difference tonight,” he said, via NHL.com. “We’ve shown throughout here ever since 4 Nations that we’re a team that’s just going to keep coming. And I love that about our group.
“I thought the Thomas line was really dynamic, and they got all three goals for us. I thought ‘Buchey’ was really good, and I thought the line was really good.”
The Oilers moved two points above the Blues in the playoffs. Edmonton is 45-28-5 on the season with 95 points. The Blues are 43-30-7 with 93 points. Edmonton has four games left on its schedule, and St. Louis has two.
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