Blues beat Maple Leafs 5-1 in first meeting against former coach Craig Berube since his firing

TORONTO (AP) — Jordan Binnington made 40 saves, Dylan Holloway scored twice and St. Louis beat Toronto 5-1 on Thursday night, spoiling Maple Leafs coach Craig Berube's first game against the Blues since they fired him in December.

Berube led St. Louis to the franchise’s only Stanley Cup in 2019.

Philip Broberg, Alexandre Texier and Jake Neighbours also scored to help St. Louis improve to 5-3-0. Jordan Kyrou and Pavel Buchnevich each had two assists.

Oliver Ekman-Larsson scored for Toronto, and Joseph Woll stopped 22 in his first start of the season after coming off injured reserve from a groin problem earlier in the day. The Maple Leafs fell to 4-4-0.

The Blues opened the scoring on their third shot when Broberg fired a puck through traffic. Holloway doubled the advantage on a power play.

Ekman-Larsson got the Maple Leafs on the board in the second with his first goal for Toronto, but Texier made it 3-1 before the period was out.

Takeaways

Blues: St. Louis played its first game without center Robert Thomas after he broke an ankle Tuesday night in a loss to Winnipeg. He's expected to miss at least six weeks.

Maple Leafs: Toronto got a number of big stops from Woll. Anthony Stolarz was outstanding in his absence, going 3-2-0 with a .938 save percentage and 1.83 GAA.

Key moment

Toronto’s power play had an opportunity to get the team within one while down 3-1 in the second, but again failed to score to drop to 0 for 3 on the night — and 3 for 26 on the season. The Maple Leafs had another fruitless man advantage in the third.

Key stat

Broberg, who was plucked by the Blues from Edmonton in August along with forward Dylan Holloway when the pair signed offer sheets the same day, has seven points in eight games.

Up next

Toronto opens a two-game trip Saturday night at Boston. St. Louis is at Montreal on Saturday night in the second of game of its trip.

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AP NHL: https://apnews.com/hub/nhl