Blues top Predators for Berube's first win as coach

ST. LOUIS -- Craig Berube got his first win as coach of the St. Louis Blues, 6-2 against the Nashville Predators at Enterprise Center on Friday.

Berube replaced Mike Yeo on Monday after the Blues lost 2-0 to the Los Angeles Kings.
"Obviously happy to get a win," Berube said. "... Nothing I told them tonight. It's just about being ready. We know it's going to be a hard game. Just played them the other night. It was a tough game and a physical game. It might have carried over."
WATCH: [All Predators vs. Blues highlights]
Ryan O'Reilly, Brayden Schenn and Alex Pietrangelo each had a goal and an assist for the Blues (8-10-3), who ended a three-game losing streak and won the second game of a home-and-home. The Predators won 4-1 in Nashville on Wednesday.
Jake Allen made 26 saves for St. Louis.
"Last game we played hard, we played physical," Schenn said. "The fights weren't involved in the game but it was a hard game. Guys were engaged emotionally and I think that carried over tonight."

Nick Bonino and Ryan Hartman scored for the Predators (16-6-1), who had their three-game winning streak end. Juuse Saros allowed five goals on 15 shots before being replaced by Pekka Rinne in the second period. Rinne allowed one goal on 19 shots.
"We didn't play well defensively at all," Predators defenseman Roman Josi said. "They had a lot of chances and the chances they had were really good chances, like A-plus chances right in front on the net, [and] breakaways, and we've got to play better for [Saros] in net."
Ivan Barbashev put St. Louis on top 1-0 at 9:26 of the first period.
O'Reilly made it 2-0 with his team-high 11th goal at 13:09 before Bonino cut the lead to 2-1 with a power-play goal on Nashville's first shot of the period at 14:12.
Schenn's breakaway 57 seconds later made it 3-1.

Zach Sanford scored 36 seconds into the second period to extend the lead to 4-1, and Robby Fabbri made it 5-1 at 11:53 and end Saros' night.
"It ended up being good timing early in the second period to get that lead up to three goals instead of two," Sanford said. "We've seen a couple two-goal leads disappear. To show that we were going to keep coming was really huge for us."
Pietrangelo scored at 14:50 of the third period to make it 6-1 before Hartman cut the lead to 6-2 at 16:13.
"We should be this team the way we played tonight," Blues forward Pat Maroon said. "This is what we should do every single night. There's no reason why we couldn't do that every night, controlling the puck, playing good defensively, closing hard, physical, going to the net, being a frustrating team to play against."

They said it

"It wasn't good. We'll look at it. There's things we did wrong and we can do better. Right from the start, right to the end. ... We knew it was going to be a physical game. They always are. We made too many mistakes. That's why we lost the game." -- Predators coach Peter Laviolette
"They're always physical games against St. Louis. They're a physical team. They had a coaching change and we knew they were going to come out hard, especially at home, and we didn't match that tonight." -- Predators defenseman Roman Josi
"This is supposed to be a tough building to play in. I know from first hand playing in here as the opposition, and it just hasn't been that the past year and a half, so we're going to keep on establishing that, keep playing hard. Obviously the fights are one thing but I think everyone was physically engaged tonight, hard to play against and that's the type of hockey team we have to be." -- Blues forward Brayden Schenn

Need to know

Predators forward Kyle Turris left with 8:37 remaining in the first period following a hit by Schenn. No update was given. … The six goals allowed were the most by the Predators this season. ... O'Reilly has 21 points (11 goals, 10 assists) the past 16 games. ... Pietrangelo's goal was the 84th of his NHL career and tied him with Chris Pronger for second in Blues history behind Al MacInnis (127). … Maroon returned after missing four games with an upper-body injury. He had one shot in 13:35. … Blues forward Jaden Schwartz (upper body) was placed on injured reserve Friday.

What's next

Predators: Host the Anaheim Ducks on Sunday (8 p.m. ET; NHLN, FS-TN, KCOP-13, NHL.TV)
Blues: Host the Winnipeg Jets on Saturday (7 p.m. ET; SN360, CITY, FS-MW, NHL.TV)