Blues spoil Hitchcock's return to St. Louis
ST. LOUIS, MO - OCTOBER 7: Joel Edmundson #6 of the St. Louis Blues celebrates after scoring a goal against the Dallas Stars in the first period at the Scottrade Center on October 7, 2017 in St. Louis, Missouri.(Photo by Dilip Vishwanat/Getty Images)
ST. LOUIS (AP) - Jake Allen made 38 saves and the Blues used three first-period goals to beat the Dallas Stars 4-2 on Saturday night and spoil coach Ken Hitchcock's return to St. Louis.
Carl Gunnarsson, Joel Edmundson and Jaden Schwartz each scored in a five-minute span in the first, and Vladimir Tarasenko added a power-play goal in the third.
John Klingberg and Mattias Janmark scored for Dallas. Kari Lehtonen made 17 saves.
The Blues opened the season with a 5-4 overtime win at Pittsburgh on Wednesday. The Stars lost to the Vegas Golden Knights 2-1 on Friday.
Hitchcock coached the Blues for six seasons, going 248-124-41 before being fired last February. He was hired as the Stars coach in April.
The Blues honored Hitchcock with a tribute on the videoboard during the first period. Fans gave Hitchcock a standing ovation and Hitchcock responded by tapping his chest.
Gunnarsson banked a shot off of defenseman Dan Hamhuis and past Lehtonen from behind the net with 10:10 left in the first, Gunnarsson's first goal in 62 games dating to the 2015-16 season. Edmundson then scored from the left circle after a nice pass from Alex Pietrangelo.
Schwartz scored off a nice pass from Brayden Schenn with 5:10 left in the period.
Klingberg scored a power-play goal for the Stars, assisted by Alexander Radulov 2:48 into the third period to make it 3-1.
Tarasenko scored his first this year with 11:30 remaining. Pietrangelo and Schenn assisted on Tarasenko's goal, giving them each two assists on the night.
Janmark scored, assisted by Jason Spezza, with 6:49 left.
GAME NOTES: The Stars went with Lehtonen in goal after using Ben Bishop on Friday. Bishop left that game early after being hit in the mask and cut by a shot. He went into concussion protocol, but Hitchcock said Saturday that Bishop was fine. He served as the backup to Lehtonen. ... The Blues are without F Robby Fabbri (left knee, out for season), F Alexander Steen (left hand), D Jay Bouwmeester (left ankle), F Zach Sanford (left shoulder) and F Patrik Berglund (left shoulder).
UP NEXT:
St. Louis: At New York Islanders on Monday.
Dallas: At Detroit on Tuesday.
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