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Jake Neighbors scores goal No. 20 as Blues snap skid
Like a good Neighbours, Jake from St. Louis was there.
Jake Neighbours scored his 20th goal of the season on a power play to break a 1-1 tie and push the St. Louis Blues to a 3-1 win over the Minnesota Wild on Saturday, March 2, in St. Louis.
“It’s pretty cool, a couple of congrats from the teammates,” Neighbours said. “They should be congratulating themselves. I owe it all to them. It has nothing to do with me. I’ve never had any crazy individual efforts. It’s all been my teammates finding me around the net.”
Neighbours scored only six goals during his first full season last year. He has seven goals so far this season on the power play alone.
“When we put him on the net front there on that unit, things kind of changed for our power play unit,” said Blues defender Torey Krug on Neighbors. “He’s a greasy guy that’s willing to go to those areas and I’m sure he doesn’t score too many goals outside that crease. So every team needs a guy like that and welcomes a guy like that.”
Neighbours’ go-ahead goal came with the help of a rebound by Robert Thomas with 7:07 left in the second period. In seven power plays, it was the only one to result in a goal.
“Even though we weren’t scoring a lot of them, we did generate some chances and some momentum,” Krug said. “To be an elite power play or good power play in this league you have to extend leads, especially in the third period when you get chances. Unfortunately, we couldn’t get one to extend it but that’s just part of it.”
Power plays have been a challenge for the Blues all season long. They entered Saturday’s game 25th in the NHL with a power play percentage of 17.7. However, it is a good sign that they are at least getting in a position to force so many penalties from the opposing team.
“That's how hockey works right? If you work hard and play the right way you're gonna get rewarded in power plays or goals,” Neighbors said. “For us as a power play, we got to obviously do a better job capitalizing on them when you get that many and putting the game away but at the end of the day, I thought we had some good pucks.”
Neighbours’ goal wasn’t without a bit of controversy. Minnesota head coach John Hynes challenged the goal, alleging goalie interference, but the goal stood after an official review.
Alexey Toropchenko scored the first goal of the game for St. Louis when he deflected Scott Perunoivch’s shot from the point 6:34 into the first period to give the Blues the initial 1-0 lead. It was his 10th goal of the season.
The Wild struck back when Jon Merrill scored his third goal of the year at 10:06 of the second period.
Krug sealed the game with 49 seconds remaining when he shot the puck the length of the ice into an empty net for his third goal of the season.
Blues goalie Jordan Binnington made 21 saves while Marc-Andre Fleury stopped 24 shots for the Wild.
The win snapped a three-game losing streak for the Blues (31-26-3), who with 65 points after 60 games are five points behind the Los Angeles Kings for the second wild card spot in the Stanley Cup Playoffs.
The Blues, who had only four home games the previous month, travel to Philadelphia on Monday to start a five-game East Coast road trip.