Blues ride early lead to win against Stars

ST. LOUIS-- Carl Gunnarsson, Joel Edmundson and Jaden Schwartz scored first-period goals in a five-minute span to help the St. Louis Blues defeat the Dallas Stars 4-2 at Scottrade Center on Saturday.

WATCH: [All Stars vs. Blues highlights]
Schwartz had a goal and assist, and Vladimir Tarasenko scored for St. Louis (2-0-0). Jake Allen made 38 saves.

"In game one (a 5-4 overtime win against the Pittsburgh Penguins on Wednesday), I thought we capitalized in some rush situations, and I wasn't expecting a lot of that tonight," Blues coach Mike Yeo said. "After the first three, four minutes, we settled in and we found a way to get to the offensive zone." Gunnarsson made it 1-0 at 9:50 by banking a shot off Stars defenseman Dan Hamhuis. Edmundson scored at 11:14 to make it 2-0 on a shot from the left circle off a pass from Alex Pietrangelo, and Schwartz made it 3-0 at 14:50 off a pass from Dmitrij Jaskin.
"We've got some guys that are pretty creative down [in the offensive zone]," Pietrangelo said. "There's some pretty good chemistry on those lines.
"They played last night, so the goal was to try and get on them quick and wear them down from the start. Obviously, it's the way you want to start every game." The Stars (0-2-0) lost 2-1 at home Friday to the Vegas Golden Knights in Vegas' first regular-season game in the NHL.
"I thought we'd be better in our zone under pressure, and that's where I thought we did ourselves in," Stars coach Ken Hitchcock said. "We had a great start to the game. The first 10 to 12 minutes was exactly what we wanted. We showed some flashes and then we showed some back-to-the-drawing-board stuff too." John Klingberg scored a power-play goal for Dallas at 2:48 of the third period to make it 3-1, and Mattias Janmark scored at 13:11 to make it 4-2.

Tarasenko scored a power-play goal at 8:30 of the third period to give St. Louis a 4-1 lead. Stars goaltender Kari Lehtonen made 17 saves.

"I'm sure everybody's disappointed, especially with the way we came out [Friday] and we were all over the other team and not able to get the win," Lehtonen said. "Today I think we had a good start again and still nothing to show for it, so we'll need to start getting those wins and climb the ladder."

Goal of the game

Blues center Brayden Schenn was able to get to the puck along the right wall and found Jaskin in the high slot. Jaskin pulled the puck to his backhand and flipped it to Schwartz, who was able to pull it past Lehtonen before scoring into an empty side of the net.

Save of the game

Stars center Tyler Seguin found left wing Jamie Benn with a cross-ice feed for what seemed would be an easy goal, but Allen went from his right to left and came up with a glove save to keep it 3-0 with eight seconds left in the first period.
"Just get across and get a glove on it," Allen said. "He got some good wood on it. I just got a glove there."

Highlight of the game

On Edmundson's goal, Pietrangelo faked a shot from the point before finding his defense partner coming down the left circle. Lehtonen committed to the shot and gave Edmundson an open side to shoot at.

They said it

"I know this is a special place. You spend six years here and you're in the playoffs every year. It's pretty special. Obviously I had a great relationship with the people here, so it was a fun place." -- Stars coach Ken Hitchcock, who coached in St. Louis for six seasons (2011-17), on the video tribute he received in the first period
"I feel good right now. I feel like I'm practicing well and it's translating into the games. Guys did a good job tonight. We started out strong. We had our ups and downs during the game. I think we'll level out here. It's still only the second game." -- Blues goaltender Jake Allen

Need to know

Hitchcock remained at 781 NHL victories, one behind Al Arbour for third all-time. ... Dallas center Martin Hanzal (lower body) left the game with 11:56 remaining in the second period. Hitchcock said Hanzal will be re-evaluated Sunday. ... The Blues are 24-8-2 under Yeo since he took over for Hitchcock on Feb. 1. ... Gunnarsson's goal was his first since scoring against the Vancouver Canucks on March 25, 2016, a span of 62 games.

What's next

Stars: Host the Detroit Red Wings on Tuesday (8:30 p.m. ET; FS-SW, FS-D, NHL.TV)
Blues: At the New York Islanders on Monday (1 p.m. ET; MSG+, FS-MW, NHL.TV)