Blues light the lamp early, cruise past Flames 4-1
ST. LOUIS -- Joakim Lindstrom and David Backes scored in the first period, Brian Elliott stopped 23 shots, and the St. Louis Blues beat the Calgary Flames 4-1 Saturday night.
Alex Pietrangelo and Vladimir Tarasenko also scored for the Blues, and Paul Stastny and Kevin Shattenkirk each had three assists. St. Louis improved to 7-1-1 in its last nine games against Calgary.
Curtis Glencross ended Elliott's shutout bid with a power-play goal with 4:13 left. Mark Giordano picked up an assist on the play for his 200th NHL point, and Jonas Hiller finished with 35 saves for the Flames, who have lost five straight at St. Louis.
Two nights after coming out flat in a season-opening loss to the New York Rangers, St. Louis got off to a fast start against Calgary.
Just 48 seconds in, Stastny got the puck down low on the right side and slid it cross ice to Lindstrom, who tapped it in for his first goal with the Blues and his first goal in the NHL since Oct. 13, 2011
The Blues made it 2-0 with a power-play goal at 8:44 of the first period when Backes deflected Shattenkirk's shot from the point.
Another shot from the point by Shattenkirk led to another power-play goal early in the second period. Shattenkirk's shot from the left point missed the mark, but the puck came off the boards to Pietrangelo crashing down the right side and he put it home.
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Tarasenko scored off a centering pass from Jaden Schwartz at 7:10 of the second period to make it 4-0.
Stastny, a St. Louis native who signed as a free agent this summer, has four points in his first two games with his hometown team. Stastny also now has 49 points in 41 career games against Calgary.
NOTES: Flames RWs Jiri Hudler and David Jones missed the game. Hudler was scratched after falling sick on Friday night and Jones has a lower-body injury. ... Stastny's last three-point game was against the Blues on April 5 while he was with Colorado. ... The victory snapped a losing streak of seven straight regular season games for the Blues dating back last season.
