ST. LOUIS -- The St. Louis Blues are not the flashiest club in the NHL.

Not even close.

"We're not a pretty team," admitted captain David Backes.

St. Louis returned to its hard-working, somewhat ugly blue-collar roots on Friday night as Vladimir Sobotka scored early in the third period and Jaroslav Halak made 15 saves to lead the Blues to a 4-2 win over the Edmonton Oilers before 19,476 at Scottrade Center.

Backes, Jaden Schwartz and Kevin Shattenkirk also scored for St. Louis, which regained some long-lost home-ice mojo as well.

The Blues, who led the NHL with a 30-6-5 home mark last season, had just one win in their previous seven home games before facing the Oilers.

But the magic resurfaced in the form of four answered goals and a nifty come-from-behind win.

The Blues improved to a mediocre 5-5-1 on friendly ice. They are 10-2-1 in their last 13 against the Oilers.

The performance was not pretty -- just effective, according to Backes, who put the game away with his third goal of the season at 14:37 of the third period.

"We're a hard-nosed, in-your-face team," he said. "We try to outwork you shift after shift. You saw glimpses of that tonight that you haven't seen in a long time. That's the kind of effort that we needed."