In Newark, Robert Thomas scored a double in the third period to help the St Louis Blues to a 5-3 win over the New Jersey Devils on Tuesday night. 
Jordan Binnington made 36 saves in the Blues win.
“We’ve got tons of depth; that was our key last year, that’s what made us so successful,” Thomas said. “We’ve got pretty much the same squad back. There’s no excuses for you to not perform when guys are out and injured.
“It obviously [stinks] losing those guys, but other guys have got to step up. So far we’ve done it and we’ve got to keep on going.”
St Louis improved to 19-17-3.
“All in all, ‘Binner’ was great tonight. He was lights out,” St. Louis coach Craig Berube said. “We battled, but we’ve got to be better.”
Jack Hughes scored twice, and Nico Hischier added a single marker in the New Jersey loss.
“We battled, we played a decent back-to-back game, but we just hurt ourselves more than anything,” New Jersey defenseman Damon Severson said. “Teams are going to do a good job and you’ve got to give them credit, but I don’t think it’s necessarily always what they’re doing. We’re sometimes shooting ourselves in the foot a little more.”
New Jersey dropped to 24-12-3 with their eighth straight home loss.
St Louis’ Jordan Kyrou and Ivan Barbashev scored around Hughes’ two goals for a 2-2 tie in the game.
Binnington stopped Dawson Mercer on a shorthanded breakaway in the third period when the score was still tied, 3-3.
“The turning point really for me momentum-wise was the Mercer breakaway,” Devils coach Lindy Ruff said. “You’ve got to do something better than that. You at least have got to shoot it. You’ve got to find a hole. If you’re deking, that goalie’s going to make a heck of a save. We miss that opportunity and they turn around and go the other way.”
Brandon Saad scored for the Blues to give them a 3-2 before Thomas scored off the power play for a 4-2 advantage.
“We talked about a next-man-up mentality,” Saad said. “I think it’s just playing the right way. When you have injuries, I think you can tighten it up, we’re checking better and we’re getting lots of chances and opportunities. We’re capitalizing on them.”
Hischier cut the deficit to 4-3, but Thomas hit an empty net for the 5-3 final.
“He’s our backstop back there,” Saad said of Binnington. “We believe in him and he’s a big reason why we won tonight and why we’re winning hockey games.”
Akira Schmid was called up from the Utica Comets of the recalled from Utica of the American Hockey League on Thursday, and made 14 saves in the loss.
“You always have to be ready when the call comes to get in there and compete,” Schmid said. “… Tonight didn’t go the way I wanted. I’ve got to be better.”
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