Cam Talbot propels Oilers to win

ST. LOUIS -- Cam Talbot made 25 saves, and Mark Letestu scored the game-winning goal for the Edmonton Oilers in a 2-1 victory against the St. Louis Blues at Scottrade Center on Tuesday.
With the Oilers on a 5-on-3 power play for 1:35 after a Magnus Paajarvi slash and Colton Parayko delay of game, Letestu made it 2-1 with 15 seconds left in the two-man advantage and 41 seconds into the second period after Jake Allen made a sprawling save on Connor McDavid.

"Yeah, when I go up there I expect to score," Letestu said. "I'm not out there to kill minutes and win a faceoff and just stand there. That's my job to get to areas where I can score and McDavid] gave me one tonight that not too many guys are going to miss on."
**WATCH: [All Oilers vs. Blues highlights**
It was the Blues' first game since trading Kevin Shattenkirk to the Washington Capitals.
Milan Lucic also scored for the Oilers (34-22-8), who ended a season-long six-game road trip 3-3-0. Ryan Nugent-Hopkins had two assists.

"It was a pretty gutsy win for us tonight and we've just got to keep that going," Nugent-Hopkins said. "I thought [the road trip] was pretty good. I think we played some tough teams for sure and came out .500 on it and maybe had the chance to be a little above that, but we got some big points and carry some confidence into a big homestand."
Paul Stastny scored for the Blues (31-26-5), who lost their season-high fourth in a row. Allen made 23 saves.
"It's not good enough, obviously," Blues defenseman Alex Pietrangelo said. "We've lost, what, four in a row now? Gotta find a way to score some goals now. We gave up two tonight, Jake made some big saves, but we've got to find a way to get some ugly goals. We've got to find a way to get around the net, take more shots. It's been a theme. We've been getting a lot of good chances, but we've got to find a way to score some ugly ones."

Stastny put the Blues ahead 1-0 with a power-play goal at 11:07 of the first period.
The Oilers tied it on Lucic's slap shot from the top of the left circle that hit the stick of Blues defenseman Joel Edmundson and deflected off Allen's glove 44 seconds later.

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Goal of the game

McDavid stayed with the play after Allen made a sliding save and was able to slip a pass to Letestu near the left post for the easy tap-in.

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Save of the game

Oilers forward Leon Draisaitl thought he put Edmonton ahead with 15 seconds left in the first period during the 5-on-3, but Allen got his stick on the shot near the post.

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Highlight of the game

Stastny positioned himself perfectly at the top of the crease and was able to redirect Pietrangelo's shot past Talbot.

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Unsung performance of the game

Defenseman Eric Gryba led the Oilers with seven hits and blocked three shots in 17:52.

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They said it

"It's a long road trip and we didn't want to let some points slip away. It's definitely good to finish up .500 and go back home for a while now."-- Oilers forward Connor McDavid
"It's frustrating. We've got to dig deeper in the [offensive] zone. I think [the] D-men were doing a really good job to support us and keep pucks in. We didn't score any 5-on-5 goals tonight, so that wasn't good enough."-- Blues forward David Perron
"One-goal games, not a lot of offense. That was a game that was there for us. We need to make a play, we need to find a way, whether it's a shot with the guy driving the net, we need to score one of those dirty goals in those situations. We need to find a way to make a play."-- Blues coach Mike Yeo

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Need to know

The Oilers traded defenseman Brandon Davidson to the Montreal Canadiens for center David Desharnais. "It's just a lot of mixed emotions as you could expect and I think that I'm going to miss a lot of things here in this place," Davidson said. "At the same time, it's also very exciting too, so I think that it's a lot of mixed emotions right now, but I think this will be for the best." ... The Oilers begin a season-long eight game homestand on Saturday. ... Newly acquired Blues center Zach Sanford arrived for the game but did not play. He will begin practicing Thursday. "

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What's next

Oilers: Host the Detroit Red Wings on Saturday (10 p.m. ET; CBC, FS-D, NHL.TV)
Blues: At the Winnipeg Jets on Friday (8 p.m. ET; TSN3, FS-MW, NHL.TV)