Ryan Nugent-Hopkins scored his 200th career NHL goal to break a tie in the third period, Stuart Skinner stopped 37 shots, and the Edmonton Oilers beat the Blues 3-1 Wednesday night in St. Louis.
“To be honest, I didn’t know it was 200,” Nugent-Hopkins said. “We just stuck with it the entire game. It was a hard-fought game the whole way through.”
Zach Hyman had a goal and an assist and Jesse Puljujarvi also scored to help the Oilers win their first road game after starting the season with a six-game homestand.
“I think we should be happy,” Nugent-Hopkins said. “We had a few little breakdowns. We had Stu when we needed him and the D-men made some big plays. The first one was a good one.”
WATCH | Nugent-Hopkins puts Oilers on top with 200th career goal:
Oilers Ryan Nugent-Hopkins 200th career goal turned out to be the winner as Edmonton took down St. Louis 3-1.
Ryan O’Reilly scored for St. Louis and Jordan Binnington finished with 25 saves.
Other than the O’Reilly goal, Skinner was outstanding.
“We got a great goaltending performance from Stuart Skinner,” Edmonton coach Jay Woodcroft said. “This was in a tough building. Nobody expects game like that more than Stuart Skinner himself. He has the confidence of the coaching staff. I started him because I thought he’d help us win the game.”
Nugent-Hopkins scored with 6:16 remaining with his fourth of the season to give the Oilers a 2-1 lead. Binnington made a big save on a shot by Hyman, but Nugent-Hopkins crashed the net and scored.
Blues coach Craig Berube was not happy with how Edmonton scored the game-winning goal.
“That goal we gave up, the go-ahead goal, that shouldn’t happen,” Berube said. “We’ve got numbers in there. We’ve got to win that. That play shouldn’t happen.”
Hyman added an empty-netter with 27 seconds remaining to seal the win.
Puljujarvi got the Oilers on the scoreboard first at 6:07 of the opening period as he tipped Darnell Nurse’s shot from centre point past Binnington.
The Blues tied it with a power-play goal with five seconds left in the second period. O’Reilly batted in a rebound off Skinner’s leg for his first of the season.
St. Louis outshot the Oilers 20-6 in the second period.
“It was a lot of fun. I was trying to enjoy myself out there,” Skinner said. “The guys made some amazing blocks for me. It was awesome. I was trying to find my groove as quickly as I could.”