McTavish Scores Twice as Blues Rout Senators

Three Blues forwards scored twice, and Ottawa never recovered. Mason McTavish, Pius Suter, and Jake Neighbours each found the net twice Tuesday night as St. Louis hammered the Senators 7-2 at Canadian Tire Centre, ending Ottawa's three-game winning streak and giving the Blues points in three straight (2-0-1).

Pavel Buchnevich stacked three assists. Adam Jiricek buried his first NHL goal. Joel Hofer needed only 15 saves. Claude Giroux and Fabian Zetterlund scored for Ottawa, and that was the end of the resistance.

Special teams set the tone

Suter opened it short-handed at 14:28 of the first. Colton Parayko forced a turnover along the wall, fed Suter on the rush, and Suter beat Samuel Ersson from the left hash marks. Neighbours made it 2-0 from the high slot midway through the second before Giroux cut it to 2-1 on a Tim Stutzle feed.

McTavish answered 33 seconds later. On a 3-on-2, Jonatan Berggren found him packed at the crease for a backhand into the open net and a 3-1 lead. Suter's second, a sharp-angle one-timer in the third, pushed it to 4-1. Neighbours tapped in a Buchnevich rush feed for 5-1, then McTavish ripped a power-play one-timer from the right circle for 6-1 at 15:33.

"It was a great team effort," Hofer said. "We stuck to our game plan, kept it simple, and yeah, we got rewarded tonight." Coach Jim Montgomery pointed at the short-handed opener and both special teams units as growth signs against a 5-2 Senators club.

Firsts and frustration

Jiricek, in his sixth NHL game, scored from above the right circle for 7-1 before Zetterlund's late power-play reply. Dylan Peterson logged 8:57 and a plus-1 in his NHL debut. Ottawa coach Travis Green called the execution "really sloppy" and noted the power play went minus-1. Ridly Greig left with a strain and missed the final 9:09.

"We made a couple mistakes that led to goals, which are uncharacteristic of our team," Green said. Giroux said the third-period collapse was on the skaters, not the goalie.

Road trip keeps rolling

St. Louis has now scored five-plus goals in back-to-back games after a 5-3 win over Columbus on Saturday. Next up is Thursday at the Minnesota Wild at Grand Casino Arena, another Central stop on this road swing. McTavish just showed he can bury even-strength and power-play chances in the same night. Blues fans will take the six-pack of goals from the three two-goal scorers and ask for the same forecheck in Minnesota.