Jordan Binnington, Jimmy Snuggerud shine as Blues beat Hurricanes, 3-1

Matthew DeFranks, St. Louis Post-Dispatch on Mar 12, 2026

Published in Hockey

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ST. LOUIS — So much for a quiet arrival.

Blues rookie forward Jimmy Snuggerud is announcing his breakout with volume.

Snuggerud scored two more goals on Thursday night against the Hurricanes — his fourth consecutive multi-point game — to guide the Blues past Carolina, 3-1. It was the Blues' fifth straight road win, and extended their point streak to six games.

The Blues improved to 6-1-1 since the Olympic break.

Jordan Binnington made 31 saves for the Blues, and he won consecutive starts for the first time since October. Pavel Buchnevich's emtpy-net goal with 50.5 seconds remaining in the third period sealed the victory.

Travis Jankowski scored Carolina's only goal of the game.

The Blues return to St. Louis to host the Oilers on Friday night at Enterprise Center. It is the team's second-to-last set of back-to-back games, and Joel Hofer is expected to face Connor McDavid and company.

Stay hot, Jimmy

Snuggerud and linemates Robert Thomas and Dylan Holloway have formed the driving force behind the Blues' post-Olympics surge, and they entered Carolina with a combined 29 points in the previous seven games.

They staked the Blues to a 3-0 lead on Tuesday against the Islanders in an eventual overtime loss, and Snuggerud handled business on Thursday in Raleigh.

After Jankowski's unassisted goal at 8:38 of the first period gave the Hurricanes a 1-0 lead, Snuggerud responded under four minutes into the second period to tie the game at 1.

Snuggerud collected the puck in his own zone, skated to center, split checks of Jordan Martinook and Jordan Staal, then wired a shot around Jaccob Slavin that picked a corner above Brandon Bussi. It was an individual rush for the 21-year-old winger, and provided Binnington with support he didn't receive in the first period.

Snuggerud scored the game-winning goal with 4:48 left in the third period, finding soft ice to the right of the net and slipping a shot through Bussi. He also helped initially win the puck along the boards.

Snuggerud's game-winning goal secured a fourth straight multi-point game, joining an impressive list of the most recent rookies to accomplish that feat: Kirill Kaprizov, Clayton Keller, Patrik Laine, Auston Matthews, Michael Grabner, Sidney Crosby and Alex Ovechkin.

He's also climbing the rookie scoring leaderboard as his 34 points and 15 goals are each tied for fourth-most in the NHL. Since Snuggerud returned from wrist surgery on Dec. 27, no NHL rookie has more points than his 23.

Keeping 'em in it

Without Binnington's performance in the first period, the Blues could have been down by three or four goals. The Hurricanes outshot the Blues 13-2 during the opening 20 minutes, including 11-1 before Jim Montgomery called timeout to refocus his team.

Binnington made two key saves on Logan Stankoven in the first period, and added another on him in the second period as Stankoven was drawing a penalty. Binnington stopped Staal, and later Sebastian Aho with a prime look in the third period.

According to Natural Stat Trick, the Hurricanes had 18 high-danger chances on Thursday night. The Blues had four.

Binnington's 31 saves were the third-most this season for him, and most since he made 37 saves in a New Year's Eve blowout loss in Colorado.

Packing up

The Blues allowed forward Jonathan Drouin to return to New York to gather more of his belongings before returning to St. Louis. Drouin was traded to the Blues while he was in San Jose, then played in Anaheim and St. Louis.

Without Drouin available to play, Nathan Walker returned to the Blues lineup for the first time since Friday in San Jose. He was been a healthy scratch in four of the last five games before Thursday.

Jonatan Berggren, Oskar Sundqvist, Justin Holl and Matthew Kessel were the other scratches for St. Louis.