Buffalo Sabres vs St. Louis Blues Match Player Stats On Jan 09, 2020

Alexander Steen scored his first two goals of the season to lead the St. Louis Blues past the visiting Buffalo Sabres 5-1 Thursday night.

The Blues won their seventh consecutive home game and improved to 10-2-1 overall in their last 13 games.

Robert Thomas and Tyler Bozak each had a goal and two assists for the Blues, who outshot the Sabres 31-19. David Perron also scored and goaltender Jordan Binnington made 18 saves.

Jack Eichel scored for the Sabres, who lost their sixth consecutive road game. Linus Ullmark, making his eighth consecutive start in goal, made 26 saves.

The Blues struck first when Thomas scored 4:47 into the game, slicing to his left through the right circle to bury a pass from Bozak.

The duo struck again about nine minutes later to put the Blues up 2-0. Bozak cut to his right from the left circle to convert a centering pass from Thomas, who had doubled back behind the net.

Eichel cut the lead to 2-1 in the second period, curling from the left wing into the slot to beat Binnington. That extended Eichel's point streak to five games.

But Perron restored the Blues' two-goal margin about six minutes later, blasting away on the power play from straight away out high.

Perron has seven goals and eight assists in his last 11 games and three goals and two assists in his last three.

Jaden Schwartz thought he scored later in the period, but a successful coach's challenge erased his goal. For the second consecutive game, a replay review detected Jordan Kyrou offside on a would-be scoring rush.

Steen started and finished a goal-mouth flurry that made it 4-1 in the third period. Bozak and Thomas earned assists in the sequence. Later Steen capped the scoring with an empty-netter.

The Blues missed key defenseman Colton Parayko for a third consecutive game due to an upper-body injury. Rookie Niko Mikkola replaced him again and earned his first NHL point in his second game by assisting on Bozak's goal.

--Field Level Media