In St Louis Tuesday night, Ryan O’Reilly picked up a hat trick to power the Blues to a 4-1 win over the Carolina Hurricanes.
“It feels good,” O’Reilly said. “I think my last one was, if we count summer hockey, probably this summer I had a hat trick at some point. But I think we’re going back deep to probably playing minor midget. It feels good to have an official one, that’s for sure.”
Jaccob Slavin scored the lone goal for the Canes.
“It’s pretty frustrating, but we dug ourselves a pretty big hole in the first period and so we have to be able to play a complete 60 minutes,” Slavin said. “When we do that, then the goals will start coming.”
Chad Johnson made 38 saves as the Blues improved to 5-5-3.
“We should be frustrated,” Hurricanes coach Rod Brind’Amour said. “I would hope so, but we’ve got to park it and come back and show all the stuff we’ve done well. Do the stuff that we need to clean up. We can’t keep giving up goals early, but at some point, these chances are going to go in for us and as long as our game is solid, then we’re going to get straight.”
Robby Fabbri also scored for the Blues; it was his first goal since December 2016.
“A long time ago. I forgot how it felt, but it definitely felt good,” Fabbri said. “I was just kind of reading off the play, reading off the pressure on my back, going to my backhand there. That was a great pass from [David Perron] there under the stick.
“That play started with [Robert Thomas] there. He made a nice pass to the middle, sucking a couple of guys in. That’s what he does well, he reads the ice well and he finds the open guy in.”
[WATCH: All Hurricanes vs. Blues highlights]
Curtis McElhinney made 16 saves in taking the loss.
I’m sick of recycling that same old stuff. We’re chasing the game again. At the end of the day, excuses are for losers. We’re not going to use them and I’m not searching for them,” Hurricanes forward Justin Williamssaid after another loss.
The Hurricanes are 6-7-2 and 0-4-1 in their last five games.
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