Steven Stamkos scored four goals to lead the Nashville Predators past the St. Louis Blues 7-2 Thursday night.
Ryan O’Reilly, Filip Forsberg and Michael Bunting also scored for the Predators, who won for the sixth time in eight games.
Luke Evangelista earned three assists for Nashville, while Fedor Svechkov, Matthew Wood, Nick Blankenberg and Roman Josi had two assists each and Juuse Saros made 24 saves.
Hugh McGing and Robert Thomas scored for the Blues, who lost for the fourth time in six games.
Jordan Binnington allowed six goals on 25 shots in two periods before Joel Hofer relieved him.
Stamkos converted a 2-on-1 rush at 8:22 of the first period to put the Predators up 1-0. He shot from the left wing, then batted in the rebound.
Nashville increased its lead to 2-0 with another rebound conversion by Stamkos at 11:19, this time from the slot off Josi’s shot.
McGing, called up from the AHL as an injury replacement, cut the Nashville lead to 2-1 at the 4:17 mark of the second frame with his first NHL goal. Robby Fabbri set him up with a one-touch pass.
Nashville pushed its margin to 3-1 with some tic-tac-toe passing that led to Evangelista setting up O’Reilly’s shot from the left circle.
Forsberg made it 4-1 on a clean break in set up by Evangelista at 11:43. Thirteen seconds later, Stamkos’ passing attempt caromed off Blues defenseman Justin Faulk into the net to put Nashville up 5-1.
Thomas got one goal back for the Blues less than two minutes later, scoring with a turnaround shot from the right faceoff circle.
But the Predators pinned the Blues in their own zone, making it 6-2 with Stamkos punching in a loose puck with 4:27 remaining in the period.
Bunting’s power-play goal off another excellent Evangelista pass extended the lead to 7-2 in the final frame.
–Field Level Media
