Blues cool Vegas in 5-3 decision

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In St Louis Thursday night, Jake Allen made 31 saves to help the Blues defeat the Vegas Golden Knights, 5-3.

Sequels can frequently be ugly imitations of the original and the Knights are flirting with ugly these days with a 5-7-1 record.

Oskar Sundqvist struck twice for the Blues in the win.

“That’s the thing that we’ve seen in training camp,” Blues coach Mike Yeo said of Sundqvist. “Last year, we knew every single game that he was going to be good defensively and be reliable. You can match him up against anybody. You could put him on the ice and feel confident that you weren’t going to be scored on. This year in training camp, what we’ve seen is there’s more offense to his game.”

Tyler Bozak, Colton Parayko and Vladimir Tarasenko also scored for the Blues.

Alex Tuch, Pierre-Edouard Bellemare and Erik Haula scored for the Knights.

“It was not a complete game. We have times of the game where we play the right way and other times where we don’t, and it ended up costing us big time. We’re going to have to figure out to play a full 60 minutes because 40 is nowhere near close enough,” Bellemare said after the loss.

Robby Fabbri returned to the Blues lineup after a second ACL injury; it was his first game since February of last year.

“I felt like I wasn’t nervous,” Fabbri said. “I felt like I was able to play my game and I think those three games in San Antonio (of the American Hockey League) helped with my legs and get my legs underneath me and it felt good tonight.

“It was exciting. It was exciting for me and my family. They were all together watching tonight. It’s just great to get back in the lineup with the guys. It makes it even more special. We got a big win tonight.”

[WATCH: All Golden Knights vs. Blues highlights]

Marc-Andre Fleury made 21 saves in the loss.

“We had some good moments tonight, then again we end up losing the hockey game, but it’s a group thing,” Golden Knights head coach Gerard Gallant said. “It’s the whole group and that’s the way we are as a team, and we win as a team, we lose as a team, and we’ve got to get better. Everybody’s got to get better.”