Blues rally past Oilers

ST. LOUIS -- St. Louis defenseman Carlo Colaiacovo believes there's a lot more to the Blues than their NHL-leading 16 home victories.

Matt D'Agostini capped a three-goal surge early in the third period and Colaiacovo had three assists to rally St. Louis to a 4-3 victory over the Edmonton Oilers on Thursday night.

"We're a good home team. We're a good team, period," said Colaiacovo. "When we play the way we're capable to playing, good things happen."

D'Agostini scored the winner when he carried the puck behind the net and wristed in a shot from the left circle at 8:59. It was the third goal of the period for St. Louis, answering Edmonton's three-goal outburst in the second.

"It was wild," D'Agostini said. "We stay even-strength with those guys in the third period and really took it to them. We built a lot of character with that win. When we play our best, there's not a lot of teams that can keep up with us when we play like that."

The Blues won for the ninth time in their last 10 home games. St. Louis is 16-3-2 at home.

Alex Pietrangelo connected on a slap shot 19 seconds into the third and the Blues tied it 3-3 when David Backes scored at 1:48, both on the power play. Chris Stewart also had a goal for St. Louis in the first period.

Blues coach Ken Hitchcock recorded his 550th victory, becoming the 11th coach in league history to reach the milestone.

"I'm still trying to figure out what the hell happened," Hitchcock said. "I'm not sure what to think. This is what you get when two young teams play. Sometimes it's going to be really bizarre. It was a wild hockey game."

St. Louis improved to 3-8-1 when trailing after two periods, while Edmonton fell to 13-3-1 when leading after two.

Taylor Hall, Ben Eager and Jordan Eberle scored for the Oilers, who are 6-15-1 on the road. Edmonton fell to 1-5 on its seven-game trip.

St. Louis has won its last four home games against Edmonton.

The Blues outshot the Oilers 14-3 in the opening period but scored only one goal. Edmonton goalie Devan Dubnyk came out to clear the puck in the corner and made a weak clearing attempt. Stewart intercepted the ill-advised pass and fed Jamie Langenbrunner across the ice on the right side. Langenbrunner one-timed it back to Stewart, who buried the puck from the left side of the net for his ninth goal at 14:42.

"Tough losses add up," Dubnyk said. "That's a game we need to win and we should win."

The second period was all Oilers, who were on the power play for 10:17 and scored twice with the man advantage. The Oilers have nine power-play goals in their last eight games.

Blues goalie Jaroslav Halak thwarted a breakaway by Edmonton's Shawn Horcoff early in the second period when St. Louis was on the power play. Horcoff took the puck from Kevin Shattenkirk just inside the blue line and raced toward Halak, who stopped the shot with his upper chest.

But Edmonton was not to be denied for long. Two quick goals gave Edmonton a 2-1 lead. The Oilers tied the game at 5:12 when Hall scored on a slap shot from just inside the blue line on a power play. Edmonton took the lead 15 seconds later when Eager wristed it from just outside of the right circle.

The Oilers made it 3-1 on their second power-play goal when Eberle slammed a slap shot by Halak from the left circle for his 17th of the season at 13:54. It was his sixth goal in his last nine games, giving him 11 points in that span.

The Blues needed less than 2 minutes of the third period to tie the game on two power-play opportunities.

St. Louis cut the lead to 3-2 when Pietrangelo scored on a slap shot 19 seconds in. The Blues knotted it at 3 when Backes deflected a slap shot from Pietrangelo in front of the net at 1:48.

"We've got to penalty kill," Edmonton coach Tom Renney said. "We needed it to be great tonight and we just missed."

NOTES: St. Louis is 18-0 when it scores three goals or more. ... the Blues' Alex Steen missed his fourth consecutive game with concussion-like symptoms. ... Halak is 6-0-3 is his last nine starts. ... Edmonton rookie Ryan Nugent-Hopkins missed his second game with a left shoulder injury. ... Dubnyk has lost five of his last six starts. ... the Blues outshot Edmonton 37-33.