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Blues slip past Oilers

Jan 14, 2015 - 5:29 AM St. Louis, MO (SportsNetwork.com) - David Backes and Vladimir Tarasenko each posted a goal and an assist to give the St. Louis Blues a 4-2 win over the Edmonton Oilers on Tuesday.

Jaden Schwartz and Alexander Steen each scored a goal for the Blues, who have won five straight. Jake Allen allowed two goals on 15 shots.

"You don't want to give points away to teams that are behind you, especially when all the other teams keep winning," said St. Louis head coach Ken Hitchcock. "You just don't want to start falling behind teams at this point."

Benoit Pouliot scored twice for the Oilers, who have lost their past two. Ben Scrivens allowed four goals on 29 shots in the loss.

"They're one of the best teams in the league for a reason and you don't want to fall behind them," said Pouliot. "We started out slow and they took it to us."

The Blues got on the board at 13:49 of the first period as Tarasenko scored on a sneaky wrister from the left circle for his 24th goal of the year.

It was a 2-0 game three minutes later after Jori Lehtera sent a quick pass from the right corner to the front where Backes tipped it into the net.

St. Louis scored the only goal of the second period at the 5:30 mark as Barret Jackman's hard pass from the left point was nicely redirected by Schwartz for his 15th goal of the season.

Edmonton got a power-play goal from Pouliot on a tip-in of a Justin Schultz shot at 8:37 of the third, but Steen gave the Blues a three-goal cushion with 3:34 to play.

Pouliot's goal with 1:56 to play accounted for the final score.

Game Notes

Edmonton continues its four-game road trip in Tampa Bay on Thursday ... St. Louis hosts Detroit on Thursday ... The Oilers were 1-for-3 on the power play, while the Blues finished the game 0-for-4.