CALGARY, Alberta (AP) — David Perron had nothing to show for his hard work during St. Louis’ first five games of the season. That changed with a big night against Calgary.
Perron had three goals and an assist to lead the Blues to a 6-4 win over the Flames on Saturday night.
“I feel like I’ve played some good hockey,” said Perron, who signed with the Blues as a free agent in the offseason. “It didn’t materialize into points or goals, but tonight it did.
Paul Stastny, Patrik Berglund and Alexander Steen also scored for the Blues, while defenseman Alex Pietrangelo had two assists. Jake Allen made 23 saves to improve to 3-1-1.
Stastny had no doubt that Perron was on the verge of a breakout game.
“He’s the reason basically we won, but I think more importantly it’s good for his confidence,” said Stastny, who scored his third goal of the season in the second period. “As a team, we saw it coming for the last couple games, which is good.”
Kris Versteeg scored his first two goals of the season for the Flames, who lost their second straight at home. Micheal Ferland and Mark Giordano also scored, while Chad Johnson stopped 34 shots.
“We’re working hard, we’re just not working smart if we’re going to be blatantly honest,” Versteeg said. “We’re going to have to be better next game. It’s about puck management for us. We’re a growing team, learning new things. But, we’re going to get better.”
Flames coach Glen Gulutzan didn’t have any complaints about Johnson’s play.
“I thought he gave us a chance and made some saves,” Gulutzan said. “We hung him out to dry, pretty simple.”
Calgary took a 2-1 just 3 minutes into the second thanks to two quick goals by Versteeg and Ferland.
The Blues then scored the next four goals, including two by Perron, to take control.
Perron tied it as he flipped his own rebound up and over Johnson’s pad at 6:22. Stastny put St. Louis back ahead with just under eight minutes to go in the period during another power play when he tipped Steen’s slap shot past Johnson.
Berglund was the beneficiary of a nice setup by Nail Yakupov for an easy tap-in goal with 1:44 left in the second.
Perron then finished off his hat trick at 6:50 of the third when he took a breakaway pass from Vladimir Tarasenko and made a couple quick moves before lifting a backhand shot over Johnson’s right pad to make it 5-2.
Steen then scored into an empty net with 39 seconds left to seal the victory.
Allen had to be sharp to get a shoulder on a point shot fired his way by defenseman Deryk Engelland early in the game. At the other end of the ice, Johnson stood his ground to stop a puck that was redirected on net by Kyle Brodziak.
Perron opened the scoring for St. Louis at 6:04 of the first period with a power-play goal when he tapped a nice pass from Robby Fabbri past Johnson.
Versteeg converted a feed from Troy Brouwer at 2:21 of the second to tie the score. Ferland backhanded a harmless-looking shot on net 35 seconds later that squeezed under Allen’s glove and into the net to put the Flames ahead.
