In a closely contested matchup, the St. Louis Blues faced a tough 4-3 defeat against the Edmonton Oilers on Wednesday night, marked by a tense late-game sequence.
As the seconds ticked away, Nathan Walker was in hot pursuit of a partial breakaway when Darnell Nurse's dive took out his legs, but no penalty flag was thrown. This pivotal moment led up to Connor McDavid finding Connor Brown for the game-winning goal with just 21 seconds left on the clock.
In his post-game comments, Blues coach Jim Montgomery, careful not to incur a fine, chose not to comment directly on the officiating. He did, however, hint at some frustrations by pointing out an incident with the net at the end of the game: “I’m not going to comment on refereeing because it’s a fine, but the video—even the net came off at the end. It didn’t come off by itself.”
When it came to the action on the ice, Jordan Kyrou, Pavel Buchnevich, and Ryan Suter lit the lamp for the Blues, while goaltender Jordan Binnington made 19 saves in the losing effort. For Edmonton, it was Connor Brown leading the way with two goals, supported by efforts from Viktor Arvidsson and Vasily Podkolzin. Calvin Pickard was vital in net for the Oilers, stopping 23 shots.
Montgomery was candid in his analysis of the game, highlighting his team's effort but acknowledging areas for improvement. “Obviously, we didn’t do a good enough job of checking McDavid and we didn’t do a good enough job of defending our net front," he remarked.
"I didn’t think we did a good enough job of getting to their net front. The net-front battle was the difference in the game.”
This loss drops the Blues to a 43-30-7 record, marking their second straight defeat following an impressive streak of 12 consecutive victories. Still, Montgomery remains optimistic about his team’s resilience: “We’ve shown throughout here ever since 4 Nations that we’re a team that’s just going to keep coming. And I love that about our group.”
Looking ahead, the Blues gear up to face the Seattle Kraken on Saturday night, hoping to get back into the win column.
As the game unfolded, Ryan Suter opened the scoring for the Blues with a shorthanded goal in the first period. The Oilers answered back in the second when McDavid assisted Brown to even things up.
Vasily Podkolzin capitalized on a rebound to put Edmonton ahead, but Kyrou quickly equalized for St. Louis at the start of the third.
Arvidsson’s goal from a rebound gave the Oilers a temporary 3-2 advantage, only for Buchnevich to tie it up once again. Ultimately, Edmonton clinched the victory when McDavid set up Brown for the decisive tally, sealing a dramatic 4-3 outcome.
