Blue Jackets hold off Blues, get 4th straight win

ST. LOUIS -- Jet Greaves made 31 saves for the Columbus Blue Jackets, who extended their winning streak to a season-high four games with a 2-1 victory against the St. Louis Blues at Enterprise Center on Saturday.

Adam Fantilli and Cole Sillinger scored for the Blue Jackets (20-17-6), who are 8-2-1 in their past 11 games. They had 23 blocked shots.

“It’s a team game,” Columbus coach Dean Evason said. “Everybody’s buying in to do the right things to keep the puck out of the net. We’ve talked a lot about our road record (6-12-3) and getting out here. We did a lot of really good things too, playing a sound defensive hockey game. Unfortunate we didn’t keep it out at the end, but we did a lot of really good things to keep it out for the majority of the hockey game.”

Greaves came within 11 seconds of his first NHL shutout, but Colton Parayko made it 2-1 on the power play with St. Louis at 6-on-4 after goalie Jordan Binnington was pulled for the extra attacker.

“I felt comfortable,” Greaves said. “… I’m just trying to stay in the moment as much as I can and just take it one play or one shot at a time. For me, I’m just trying to stay present.

“At the end of the day, you want to play well, but more than anything, you want to win hockey games. That’s what it’s about, that’s what we care about.”

Binnington made 28 saves for the Blues (20-20-4), who have lost three of four.

“The lack of urgency in our group is what’s hurting us in our consistency,” St. Louis coach Jim Montgomery said. “You look at the way we came out against Anaheim (in a 6-2 win on Thursday), there was a direct purpose to what we were doing. Tonight there was not. It was wait and see. And that urgency [of] us fearing losing is something that’s got to become part of our fiber if we want to get to the consistent level we want to be at.”

Fantilli gave Columbus a 1-0 lead at 15:38 of the first period. Kirill Marchenko found him open in front with a pass from the right face-off circle, and Fantilli scored around Binnington.

“I thought [Marchenko] was shooting it,” Fantilli said. “I know when he has the puck in those areas, I have to be ready for it because he could be faking it and he could be slipping it. I’ve just got to stay ready in there and it ended up coming. The fake was so good that Binnington wasn’t in the net there and it worked out.”

Sillinger made it 2-0 with a power-play goal at 16:51 of the second period. He scored with a one-timer from in close off James van Riemsdyk’s pass from behind the net.

“To make it 2-0 going into the third period, going out to a two-goal lead was key,” Sillinger said.

Parayko’s goal prevented the Blues from getting shut out for the first time this season, but it wasn’t enough.

“We got [out] to a great start last game and kind of set the tone for the whole game,” St. Louis center Robert Thomas said. “We weren’t able to do that tonight and it’s frustrating. We need to find a way to be consistent for the whole 60 minutes. It’s hard fighting back when you’re down. We had some good pushes but weren’t able to score. Just got to come out stronger.”

NOTES: Fantilli has six points (three goals, three assists) in a career-high five-game point streak. … Marchenko (assist) has five points (two goals, three assists) in a four-game point streak and 20 points (eight goals, 12 assists) in his past 14 games. … Blue Jackets forward Dmitri Voronkov (assist) has six points (four goals, two assists) in a four-game point streak and 18 points (10 goals, eight assists) in his past 13 games. … Blues defenseman Ryan Suter played his 1,488th game, passing Wayne Gretzky for 24th on the NHL list. He had 17:36 of ice time. … St. Louis had scored four or more goals in five straight games.