Tarasenko notches hat trick, 5 points as Blues bombard Sabres
BUFFALO, N.Y. (AP) — Vladimir Tarasenko scored three times as part of a career-best five-point outing and the St. Louis Blues rolled to their seventh straight win by beating the Buffalo Sabres 6-2 on Thursday night.
Robert Thomas had five assists to extend his point streak to 11 games, during which he has six goals and 23 points. Pavel Buchnevich, Brandon Saad, and David Perron also scored for the Blues, whose surge has them battling the Minnesota Wild for second place in the Central Division standings, and home-ice advantage in the first round of the playoffs.
Credit Tarasenko, who scored twice in the second period and added an empty-netter, for fueling a Blues surge in which he has now scored game-winning goals in three straight outings to give him a career-best nine on the season.
Jordan Binnington stopped 35 shots for his second straight win after four consecutive losses.
The winning streak is the Blues’ longest since an 8-0 run from Feb. 18 to March 3, 2020, and they improved to 9-0-1 in their past 10.
Alex Tuch and Rasmus Asplund scored, and Craig Anderson stopped 22 shots for Buffalo. Defenseman Owen Power set up Tuch’s goal for the 2021 No. 1 draft pick’s first NHL point in his second career game since leaving Michigan to sign with the Sabres.
Tarasenko took Power to school on each of his first two goals scored 5:27 apart to put the Blues up 4-2.
Power overcommitted in attempting to check Thomas at the end boards, leaving Tarasenko wide open in the lower right circle, from where he converted Buchnevich’s pass 7:18 into the second period.
On his next goal, Tarasenko was at top speed up the right wing and turned Power inside out by getting around the defender to eventually score on a breakaway. Tarasenko was coming off a two-goal outing in a 4-2 win at Boston on Tuesday and now has seven goals and 13 points in his past four.
Buffalo, already eliminated from playoff contention, dropped to 2-5 in its past seven.
STREAKING
With a goal and two assists, Buchnevich extended his point streak to eight games, in which he has five goals and 14 points. ... Thomas’ point streak was the second-longest active run entering Thursday, behind Florida’s Jonathan Huberdeau (12 games). ... The Blues improved to 15-2-1 in their past 18 meetings against Buffalo.
30 FOR 30
Tage Thompson (33 goals) and Jeff Skinner (31) are Buffalo’s first tandem to score 30 or more goals in one season since Thomas Vanek (32) and Drew Stafford (31) in 2010-11.
WORLDS AWAY
Sabres coach Don Granato earned recognition earlier in the day by being selected as an assistant coach for the U.S. men’s national team to compete at the world championships in Finland next month. Granato is in his first full season as Buffalo’s coach and has previously coached USA Hockey’s developmental program teams.
UP NEXT
Blues: Host the Wild on Saturday in a showdown between the Central Division’s second- and third-place teams.
Sabres: Open a home-and-away set against Philadelphia by hosting the Flyers on Saturday.
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