Perron's scoring powering Blues heading into Game 3 against Avalanche

ST. LOUIS -- Thanks to some motivation and a desire to make up for lost time, David Perron finds himself in elite company in St. Louis Blues history heading into Game 3 of the Western Conference Second Round against the Colorado Avalanche at Enterprise Center on Saturday (8 p.m. ET; TNT, CBC, SN, TVAS).

That the best-of-7 series against the Avalanche, the top-seeded team in the Western Conference, is tied 1-1 is in large part a testament to Perron. The forward's two goals in a 4-1 victory in Game 2 on Thursday not only evened the series but made him the first Blues player to score seven goals in his team's first eight Stanley Cup Playoff games since Shayne Corson in 1996.
This is not the first time this postseason that Perron, who turns 34 on May 28, has played his way into St. Louis playoff lore.
In a 4-0 win at the Minnesota Wild in Game 1 of the first round, he became the 14th player in Blues history with a postseason hat trick, the first since Jaden Schwartz in the 2019 Western Conference Final.
RELATED: [Complete Avalanche vs. Blues series coverage]
"Yeah, after all these years, it's a long way coming for many reasons, many ways, so obviously I'm proud of that," Perron said. "It's super cool. I have a lot of pride wearing the Blue Note."
Perron leads St. Louis with 11 points (seven goals, four assists) in eight playoff games, and going into play Friday was tied for fourth in the NHL in scoring this postseason.
He also has been pivotal on the power play and in clutch situations; he leads the Blues with six points (three goals, three assists) on the man-advantage and has scored two game-winning goals.
In Game 2, Perron scored a 5-on-3 power-play goal on a one-timer from the left face-off circle with 34 seconds remaining in the second period, which gave St. Louis a 2-0 lead and proved to be the winning goal.

"He's a very good power-play guy," Blues coach Craig Berube said of Perron, who led St. Louis in power-play goals (11) and points (26) during the regular season. "He's been a good power-play guy for some time now, whether it's shooting, or he makes plays. He's competitive, he hangs onto the puck and doesn't lose it."
Perron's goal at 10:31 of the third period gave the Blues a 3-1 lead. He led a 2-on-1 rush with linemate Pavel Buchnevich, kept the puck and beat Avalanche goalie Darcy Kuemper to the short side, past his glove.
"It was exciting to play with 'Buch,'" Perron said. "I haven't had the chance, really, and I've seen so many of his passes this year, goals, defensive awareness, all that stuff. To be on the ice doing it with him is a good feeling."
In order for St. Louis to take a lead in the series, they need to continue the effective forechecking that gave it an edge in Game 2 and helped minimize the offense of high-scoring Colorado forwards Nathan MacKinnon, Mikko Rantanen and Gabriel Landeskog, who combined for a goal and two assists.
"We've got to stay composed, under control and kind of minimize the chances they have," Perron said, "and try to find that momentum the next shift because they just keep coming at you and it's all five of them with [defensemen Cale] Makar and [Devon] Toews. They do a great job. I thought we were pretty composed. We did a great job, and from the get-go, we had a good start.
"We made them defend. That definitely will slow them down a little bit, chipping away at their bodies so that they can't get the speed they want. We did a good job in the first two periods and in the third, [goalie Jordan Binnington] held the lid for us (making 11 of his 30 saves). He had a good push and it was a good win."