Saad scores twice in Blues win against Penguins

ST. LOUIS -- Brandon Saad scored twice for the St. Louis Blues in a 4-2 win against the Pittsburgh Penguins at Enterprise Center on Saturday.

Jordan Binnington made 31 saves for the Blues (2-1-1), who wrapped up a three-game homestand winning two of three. Colton Parayko and Jake Neighbours each scored, and Kasperi Kapanen and Robert Thomas each had two assists.

St. Louis was looking for a response after a 6-2 loss against the Arizona Coyotes on Thursday and got it.

"Any time you have that experience to fall back on, you can kind of turn the page and I think we did a good job of staying composed and doing that here tonight," Saad said. "After last game, we didn't have our best game and we wanted to come out with some pace and some chances tonight, and I think we did a good job of moving the puck and creating some chances. As a line all night (with Robert Thomas and Jordan Kyrou), I thought we played pretty well."

Evgeni Malkin and Radim Zohorna scored, and Tristan Jarry made 17 saves for the Penguins (2-3-0), who have lost two straight.

"We didn't play hard enough, and we didn't play smart enough," Pittsburgh coach Mike Sullivan said. "We got what we deserved.

"We had our chances, but give St. Louis credit. They defended hard, they took advantage of the opportunities we gave them. You know, we gave them way too many chances off the rush, because we didn't play with the purpose that we need to play with in the offensive zone, whether it be with the puck or without it."

Saad gave the Blues their first lead of the season, 1-0, at 9:33 of the first period. It took 199:33 for St. Louis to go ahead in its fourth game.

Malkin tied it 1-1 on a breakaway at 19:55 after coming out of the penalty box and being sprung by defenseman Kris Letang. It came after Blues center Brayden Schenn lost control of a puck near the goal line.

"I thought we had a good first," Neighbours said. "Obviously still things to clean up and stuff like that, but I thought we had a good first and it was just a bad bounce out of our zone at the end of a power play that had really a lot of good looks. It was tough, we knew that. It doesn't really deplete a team. We did a good job coming into the room and chatting about it, knowing that we had a good push there in the first and just needed to come out strong in the second."

The Blues scored twice in 1:33 during the second period. Neighbours made it 2-1 at 5:39 after Kapanen dangled around Penguins defenseman Ryan Shea and slid the puck into the crease for a tap-in. Parayko's slap shot from the point at 7:12 pushed the lead to 3-1.

"That's one of those ones where you just kind of watch," Neighbours said. "He put on a show there. Just have my stick on the ice and go to the back post. That's an easy one for me."

Saad scored from the left circle at 15:13 of the third period to make it 4-1 on another feed from Kapanen.

Zohorna scored on the doorstep at 16:27 for the 4-2 final on a goal mouth scramble, but Sullivan lamented other issues with the Penguins game right now.

"We had people at the net, we had people at the blue paint, and you know, we've scored a fair amount of goals already this year at the blue paint," Sullivan said. "I don't think that was the issue tonight."

NOTES: Kapanen faced his former team for the first time since Pittsburgh put him on waivers Feb. 24; he has seven points (three goals, four assists) in 10 games against the Penguins. ... Malkin has eight points (four goals, four assists) in a four-game point streak and 21 points (eight goals, 13 assists) in 22 games against St. Louis. ... Pittsburgh center Sidney Crosby had his season-opening four-game point streak (three goals, two assists) end. ... Blues forward Pavel Buchnevich missed his second straight game with an upper-body injury. ... Shea played 11:32 and was minus-1 in his NHL debut. ... Zohorna scored in his season debut for the Penguins. He played 10:56 with three shots and was plus-1; he was recalled from Wilkes-Barre/Scranton of the American Hockey League on Friday. ... Jarry was 5-0-0 with a 1.32 goals-against average and .950 save percentage in five prior games against the Blues. ... St. Louis is 2-0-2 in its past four games against Pittsburgh at home.