Nugent-Hopkins lifts Oilers past Blues

ST. LOUIS -- Oscar Klefbom scored the tying goal with 56 seconds remaining in the third period, and the Edmonton Oilers defeated the St. Louis Blues 3-2 in a shootout at Enterprise Center on Wednesday.

Ryan Nugent-Hopkins also scored, and Cam Talbot made 28 saves for his 100th win for the Oilers (14-12-2), who are 4-1-0 in the past five games.
Ivan Barbashev and Brayden Schenn scored, and Jake Allen made 34 saves for St. Louis (9-13-4), which is 1-3-1 in the past five games and 2-6-1 in the past nine.
WATCH: [All Oilers vs. Blues highlights]
Edmonton trailed 2-0 after the first period.
"We didn't have a good first period," Oilers coach Ken Hitchcock said. "I thought the first period was one of the poorest periods we've played, and I thought the second period was the best period we've played on the road by a mile. The second period was really good for us and we did a lot of good things."
The win was Talbot's first since Oct. 28.
"It feels really good," Talbot said. "I don't like when you put it like that, but you know, I came out here, I battled tonight. Guys did a great job in front of me. After that first period we adjusted some things and tightened up and that's what we needed to do tonight. It was a big team win and that's a good confidence booster going home."
Down 2-1, the Oilers pulled Talbot with 1:54 remaining, and Klefbom took a pass from Connor McDavid and beat Allen through a screen to tie the game 2-2.

"The timing's been good lately with my goals and I'll take that," Klefbom said. "I just told the other guys it gives us so much confidence to win a game like this."
Blues coach Craig Berube said they have to do a better job of getting in the shooting lane since Allen couldn't see the puck.
"We've got to block that shot," Berube said. "That's the biggest thing."
It's the fourth time the Blues have lost this season when they have a 2-0 lead (0-1-3).
"It happens when you sit back and play defense as soon as you get the lead," Schenn said. "We sat back as soon as we were up 2-0 the whole night, let them come at us and eventually they're going to tie the game, which they did."
After Tyler Bozak gave St. Louis a 1-0 lead in the first round of the shootout, Nugent-Hopkins and McDavid scored on consecutive opportunities, and Talbot made saves on Vladimir Tarasenko and Schenn.

"Ultimately, I definitely wasn't very good at shootouts early on in my career," said McDavid, who is 7-for-13 in shootouts in the NHL. "It's something I've gotten more and more comfortable doing."
Barbashev gave the Blues a 1-0 lead at 6:05 of the first period, and Schenn made it 2-0 at 13:32.
Nugent-Hopkins cut the lead to 2-1 at 4:04 of the second period.

They said it

"That's the strength of our team. Our goaltending is the strength of our team. We've got two really good goalies who give us a chance to win every night and now it's on me to make sure there is a rhythm moving forward when you've got two goalies going this good. I don't think you can win in the National Hockey League or in the Western Conference with one goalie. We're lucky. We've got two great goalies." -- Oilers coach Ken Hitchcock
"The game never should have gotten to overtime. It's unfortunate it did." -- Blues goalie Jake Allen

"We got caught in a three-quarter ice game there. Just stopped making plays, and when you stop making plays you get the puck out, they just pound it back in and come at us. That's their game too. We fed into that in the second, for sure." -- Blues coach Craig Berube

Need to know

Klefbom's goal was his third in five games. ... Talbot became the fifth Oilers goalie to reach 100 wins, behind Grant Fuhr (226), Bill Ranford (176), Tommy Salo (147) and Andy Moog (143). … Blues defenseman Chris Butler and forward Jordan Nolan were recalled from San Antonio of the American Hockey League on Monday. Butler had his first NHL assist since April 11, 2015, and Nolan, who was signed July 5, made his Blues debut and had an assist in 6:32. … The Oilers are 5-2-1 under Hitchcock, who took over for Todd McLellan on Nov. 20. ... Schenn has a five-game point streak (six goals, five assists) against the Oilers.

What's next

Oilers:Host the Minnesota Wild on Friday (9 p.m. ET; SNW, FS-N, FS-WI, NHL.TV)
Blues: At the Winnipeg Jets on Friday (8 p.m. ET; NHLN, TSN3, FS-MW, NHL.TV)