CHICAGO — Thanks to a 5-3 win over the Blackhawks on Thursday night, for the first time in six weeks, the Blues inched their record above .500.

Jakub Vrana, Logan Brown, Alexey Toropchenko, Jordan Kyrou and Brandon Saad scored for the Blues, who are now 6-1-1 in their last eight games. Jordan Binnington made 30 saves.

The win pushed the Blues’ record to 35-34-6, above .500 for the first time since a win over New Jersey on Feb. 16.

Andreas Athanasiou, Tyler Johnson and Boris Katchouk scored for the Blackhawks, who lost their seventh straight game.

The Blues fought off a late push by the Blackhawks with the extra attacker, which included Binnington’s sprawling save on Lukas Reichel with about 1:45 left in the third period. Moments later, Brandon Saad iced the game with an empty-netter.

Slow start

The high-scoring game masked a slow start on Thursday night.

Neither team had a shot on goal in the opening seven minutes, and Seth Jones’ shot 7:04 into the game led into the first television timeouts. The Blues’ first shot on goal came 9:20 into the game, when Brayden Schenn directed a puck on net.

In the second period, Vrana opened the scoring with his ninth goal in 13 games since he was acquired at the trade deadline from Detroit. After scoring twice against the Canucks on Tuesday, Vrana has now scored in consecutive games for the second time with the Blues. The goal was Vrana’s 200th career point.

Brown tipped a Justin Faulk shot after Josh Leivo forced a turnover deep in the Blackhawks zone. The goal was the first by Brown since March 2 in San Jose. Without Robert Thomas and Pavel Buchnevich in the lineup for the Blues, Brown had a chance for more minutes as the third-line center on Thursday night.

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