James Neal , with the St. Louis Blues on a professional tryout, scored a hat trick in a 6-2 win against the Minnesota Wild in their preseason opener at Enterprise Center in St. Louis on Saturday.
The forward gave the Blues a 2-0 lead at 2:22 of the second period, made it 4-2 5:20 into the third period, and scored an empty-net goal for a 5-2 lead with 53 seconds left. Brandon Saad, in his debut with St. Louis after signing as a free agent, scored in the first period. Ivan Barbashev and Michael Frolik scored for St. Louis, Ville Husso made 10 saves without allowing a goal, and Charlie Lindgren made 18 saves. Adam Beckman scored twice for the Wild to tie it 2-2. Kaapo Kahkonen allowed two goals facing eight shots. Andrew Hammond made 18 saves on 21 shots.
