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Pat Maroon’s controversial third-period goal lifts Blues over Oilers 4-1

Dec 18, 2018 | 9:00 PM

EDMONTON — A controversial video review goal left the St. Louis Blues with two points and the Edmonton Oilers still scratching their heads.

A goal credited to Pat Maroon early in the third period was the winner as the Blues came away with a 4-1 victory over the Oilers on Tuesday. Maroon’s goal came 2:19 into the final period, as officials declared after a video review that the puck had crossed the line during a goal-mouth scramble, despite the referees not originally calling a goal on the ice.

“The way it was explained to us was that he pushed on the puck, he didn’t push on the pad,” said Oilers head coach Ken Hitchcock. “The pad happened to go with the puck. That was the way it was explained to us. They said they had an overhead view that said the puck was in before the push started. The look that we had was different. So what are you going to do?”

Maroon said he is simply happy that the goal, just his second of the season, was declared valid.

“I think the longer it (review) goes, the better it is for us. I think if it goes longer, they’re making a decision if it crossed the line and it went long to see if it was goaltender interference too,” he said. “It means a lot. I’ve been struggling a lot and I haven’t been going to the net as much and I haven’t been finding ways to get the puck in the net.”

David Perron, Vladimir Tarasenko and Jaden Schwartz also scored for the Blues (13-15-4), who have won three of their last four games. Brayden Schenn had three assists.

“It was a real solid team effort,” said Blues interim head coach Craig Berube. “Man to man, everybody was dialled in and played a real solid team game for 60 minutes. Special teams were big, we scored a big power-play goal, the penalty kill was excellent.”

Jesse Puljujarvi replied for the Oilers (18-14-3), who have lost three of their last four and saw a six-game home winning streak ended.

St. Louis got out in front eight minutes into the first period when Perron beat Oilers goalie Cam Talbot up high with a wrist shot for his 11th goal of the season.

The Blues had 13 first period shots, while the Oilers only put eight on St. Louis starter Jake Allen.

Edmonton came close five minutes into the second period, but Connor McDavid ripped a shot off the crossbar. They would get the tying goal a couple minutes after that, however, when Puljujarvi scored on a one-timer blast, a play that withstood a video review for a potential off-side call. Defenceman Caleb Jones picked up his first NHL point with an assist.

The Oilers came close to grabbing the lead early in the third as a Jujhar Khaira shot got behind Allen before being fished out to safety by defender Joel Edmundson.

Maroon’s eventual winner came shortly afterwards.

Then, with Khaira serving a five-minute cross-checking major, the Blues added to their lead with Tarasenko ending a seven-game drought with his 10th of the season.

Schwartz put the game away with an empty-netter.

The Blues play the second game of a three-game Western Canada road swing in Vancouver on Thursday. The Oilers are off until Saturday, when they play host to Tampa Bay, the second game of a five-game homestand.

Notes: It was the second of three meetings between the two teams, with Edmonton winning the first contest 3-2 in a shootout on Dec. 5.

Shane Jones, The Canadian Press