Blues hold off Islanders to end 4-game losing streak

ELMONT, N.Y. -- Jordan Binnington made 30 saves, and the St. Louis Blues ended a four-game losing streak by defeating the New York Islanders 2-1 at UBS Arena on Saturday.

Brayden Schenn and Pius Suter scored for the Blues (7-9-6), who were 0-1-3 in their previous four, including back-to-back overtime losses entering Saturday.

“It felt great. I think the boys played really hard,” St. Louis coach Jim Montgomery said. “It's three games in a row in this trip where we could be undefeated, but we haven't been. But we've been resilient. We keep believing, we keep playing the right way. We got rewarded for it.”

Anders Lee scored for the Islanders (12-8-2), who had won two in a row and were coming off a seven-game road trip (6-1-0). Ilya Sorokin made 20 saves.

“At the start, they may have had some pop, and then we settled in. It was a pretty good hockey game,” said Lee, the New York captain. “Both goalies played well. I thought we created a lot of good chances, and he (Binnington) had some pretty good sprawling saves, and sometimes that's the difference. We had some good looks late and kind of throughout the whole game, and Binnington was pretty solid tonight.

“I liked our game. I think we stuck with it. We didn't deviate from the style of play and our focus that we've had the last little bit here. We just didn't get the extra one tonight to get us into overtime.”

Schenn made it 1-0 by scoring on the rush just 42 seconds into the game. He beat Sorokin blocker side from high in the right face-off circle off a pass by Pavel Buchnevich.

“I just got to puck on the boards, and I saw Buchnevich in the middle,” said Dalibor Dvorsky, who earned the secondary assist on the goal. “So I just tried to give it to him, and the guys did a great job. And Schenn, I mean, great shot, obviously, and I’m happy it went in.”

Sorokin got over to the left post to deny Dvorsky’s sharp-angled shot at the back door at 18:03, keeping it a one-goal game.

Suter extended the lead to 2-0 at 17:51 of the second period. After Sorokin stopped a Dylan Holloway shot from the top of the slot, Suter went to the backhand to lift the rebound over the goalie’s left pad.

Binnington stuck out the right pad to stop Lee’s wrist shot on a breakaway at 9:24 of the third period, but Lee cut it to 2-1 at 16:40 with Sorokin pulled for the extra attacker. He buried a rebound from the top of the crease.

Bo Horvat then appeared to tie the game at 17:54, but the goal was waved off because Kyle Palmieri interfered with Binnington. Blues defenseman Justin Faulk was assessed a double minor for high-sticking Islanders forward Jonathan Drouin on the play, putting New York on the power play for the duration.

“The first goal probably hurt us a bit,” New York coach Patrick Roy said. “We just couldn't get that one back until the end. They're always tougher games [coming back from a long road trip]. And I guess the fact that we were trailing early on probably hurt us a little bit as well. So we didn't have the same jump that we had, maybe on the road, on that road trip, which is normal. But I thought that the fact that we were down by one goal going into that second period, I really believe that we could come back, and we had some good chances.”

With Sorokin pulled and the Islanders at 6-on-4, Binnington gloved Horvat's one-timer from the top of the left circle with 29 seconds remaining.

“Big kill at the end,” said Schenn, the St. Louis captain. “'Binner' made great saves. I thought we were really good defensively all night, and then obviously they got a bounce there on the 6-on-5, but solid team effort and something to build off of.”

NOTES: Islanders forward Mathew Barzal got his 339th career assist, passing John Tonelli for seventh in franchise history. … Schenn ended an 11-game goal drought with his third of the season.