Walker scores first NHL hat trick in Blues win against Red Wings

ST. LOUIS -- Nathan Walker scored his first NHL hat trick to help the St. Louis Blues defeat the Detroit Red Wings 6-2 at Enterprise Center on Thursday.

The forward, who had scored three goals in his first 25 NHL games, made his season debut after being called up from Springfield of the American Hockey League on an emergency basis Wednesday.
"It was incredible," Walker said. "I guess that was it. I was just happy we got the two points and we can move on to the next game now."
Walker completed the hat trick when he redirected a Torey Krug point shot in the slot at 9:27 of the third period to give St. Louis a 4-1 lead.
"I knew I tipped it and I saw the back of the net," Walker said. "I didn't know whether it might have hit 'Sunny' (forward Oskar Sundqvist) on the way in or 'Schenner' (forward Brayden Schenn). I wasn't sure about that. I knew I tipped it and I saw the back of the net, so I just figured I'd [celebrate]."

Marco Scandella had a goal and an assist, and fourth-string goalie Charlie Lindgren made 29 saves in his first start for the Blues (14-8-4), who have won six straight at home. Krug, Dakota Joshua and Niko Mikkola each had two assists.
Robby Fabbri scored twice for the Red Wings (13-11-3) in his first game in St. Louis since the Blues traded him to Detroit on Nov. 6, 2019. Alex Nedeljkovic allowed three goals on 18 shots before being replaced by Thomas Greiss (five saves) to start the third.
"It's another tough one," Fabbri said. "Digging ourselves in a hole and it's hard to come out of."
For the second straight game, St. Louis played one skater short with 17. It has six injured players and three more in NHL COVID-19 protocol, and could not call up another player because of NHL salary cap constraints.
Lindgren made his first NHL start since March 7, 2020, for the Montreal Canadiens; he got the win in relief of the injured Ville Husso on Tuesday, playing the final 6:25 of a 4-3 overtime win against the Florida Panthers. Lindgren is behind Jordan Binnington (protocol), Husso (lower-body injury) and Joel Hofer on the depth chart. Hofer could not be called up from Springfield.
"I think a lot of the nerves that I get is more so before the puck drops," Lindgren said, "and then once that puck drops, you really just want to go out and play and feel the puck. And I thought Detroit, they were trying to put a lot of pucks to the net early and that always kind of helps just trying to get a rhythm. And I think our team scoring a couple goals early, that always helps to kind of settle me in and we end up potting six. So, really, really good team effort tonight."

Walker gave the Blues a 1-0 lead at 6:17 of the first period when his shot from the top of the right face-off circle squirted through Nedeljkovic's pads. Walker made it 2-0 at 16:47 when he skated into the left circle and scored with a wrist shot.
Fabbri cut it to 2-1 at 4:17 of the second period with a wrist shot from the right circle that was high to the short side.
Colton Parayko made it 3-1 at 16:01 when he poked in a loose puck in the crease. "I think it was one of those nights in the first two periods where the puck went in for them and it didn't go in for us," Detroit coach Jeff Blashill said. "I felt we had as many opportunities if not more than them."
Ivan Barbashev's redirection extended the lead to 5-1 at 10:11 of the third, but Fabbri scored on a breakaway at 15:27 to make it 5-2.
Scandella scored into an empty net with six seconds left for the 6-2 final.
"I thought they were harder at the net," Blashill said. "They had more net presence than us. Look at their goals, they were strong at the net.
"I felt like we lost our game in the third. We had a couple of big breakdowns in our end. But it wasn't a game where I was disappointed with the effort."
NOTES: Detroit has lost two straight after winning five in a row. ... Red Wings forward Pius Suter had his six-game point streak end (six points; one goal, five assists). ... Detroit forward Lucas Raymond had two assists. … Blues forward Pavel Buchnevich had an assist and has scored 18 points (nine goals, nine assists) in the past 16 games.