The St. Louis Blues turned a tight road contest into a rout Tuesday night at Canadian Tire Centre, scoring four times in the third period to defeat the Ottawa Senators 7-2 and improve to 3-2-1 on the season.
Pius Suter, Mason McTavish, and Jake Neighbours each scored twice, with Suter adding an assist for a three-point night. Pavel Buchnevich recorded three assists, and defenseman Adam Jiricek notched his first NHL goal of the season. Joel Hofer turned aside 15 of 17 shots in goal for the Blues.
The Blues opened the scoring on a shorthanded goal by Suter at 14:28 of the first period, set up by Colton Parayko and Buchnevich. Neighbours made it 2-0 midway through the second on assists from Robert Thomas and Dylan Holloway. Claude Giroux answered for Ottawa with his first of the season, assisted by Tim Stutzle and Drake Batherson, but McTavish restored the two-goal cushion just 33 seconds later on a feed from Jonatan Berggren and Connor McMichael.
St. Louis seized control in the third. Suter scored again at 7:54 (assists from Ross Johnston and Brandon Carlo), Neighbours netted his second of the night at 14:46 (Buchnevich and Cam Fowler), and McTavish converted a power-play opportunity at 15:33 (McMichael and Buchnevich) for a 6-1 lead. Jiricek’s snap shot at 16:32, assisted by Suter and McTavish, made it 7-1 before Fabian Zetterlund scored a late power-play goal for the Senators.
The Blues outshot Ottawa 26-17 and won 57.1 percent of the faceoffs. Samuel Ersson stopped 19 of 26 shots for the Senators, who dropped to 5-2-0 after entering the night on a strong start. Dylan Peterson made his NHL debut and was involved in a third-period fight with Jorian Donovan.
The victory kicks off a three-game road trip for St. Louis and highlighted depth scoring from the bottom six and special teams. Ottawa, playing the second half of a back-to-back, struggled to contain the Blues’ attack after a competitive first 40 minutes.
