ST. LOUIS (AP) — David Perron had a goal and two assists as the St. Louis Blues beat the Colorado Avalanche 4-1 on Monday night.
Vladimir Tarasenko, Brayden Schenn, and Robert Thomas also scored, and Jordan Binnington made 30 saves as St. Louis won its second straight game against the Avalanche. Colorado won the season series 5-3.
“I really get this feeling that we can play against any team when we do the right things like we did tonight,” Perron said. "I think we've still got that quiet confidence that we’ve got to keep pushing forward and things are going to click in the end at the right time."
Nathan MacKinnon scored for Colorado, and Jonas Johansson had 16 saves. The Avalanche remain four points behind West Division-leading Vegas. Colorado has played one fewer game.
“Frustrating night no doubt,” Avalanche captain Gabriel Landeskog said. “It was a game where when your effort isn’t there and your brain’s not turned on right from the get-go it’s hard to catch up.”
“I didn’t like our first period,” Avalanche coach Jared Bednar said. “I thought that we didn’t compete at the level St. Louis competed at in the first period and we didn’t look like we had our brains turned on either.”
Tarasenko scored his fourth goal of the season on a power play 9:25 into the first period to put St. Louis up 1-0.
Schenn scored his 13th goal of the season when he one-timed a feed from Ryan O'Reilly with 6:26 remaining in the period to give St. Louis a 2-0 lead. Schenn had not scored in his previous 18 games.
“He’s been working hard, doing the right things, being a great leader,” Perron said "It probably chips away at a guy when you go that long. I was getting close to that too, so I was starting to get that feeling."
Perron deflected a Justin Faulk shot from the point 7:02 into the second period for his 14th goal of the season to put St. Louis up 3-0.
“We threw a lot of emphasis into the second period tonight,” Schenn said. “We got it going there in the second period and played the right way and put each other in good spots, set each other up with line changes and support and it’s fun playing that way rather than playing in your end the whole period.”
MacKinnon broke up the shutout with his 19th goal of the season on a feed from Landeskog on a power play 8:24 into the second period. The goal extends MacKinnon’s points streak to 14 games.
“They're hard to come by for a lot of players, but not necessarily for Nate." Bednar said about MacKinnon's streak. “We see him go through stretches like that when he gets hot and he's playing the right way and doing the right things he gets rewarded.”
Thomas gave St. Louis a 4-1 lead with his second goal of the season and first goal since Feb. 6 with 9:07 remaining in the second period.
AVS UPDATES:
Colorado LW Brandon Saad will miss two to four weeks with a lower body injury. … RWs Joonas Donskoi and Mikko Rantanen were removed from the COVID-19 list.
DEBUT IN BLUE:
St. Louis D Steven Santini was recalled from the taxi squad and made his Blues debut. St. Louis dressed 11 forwards and seven defensemen. Blues D Vince Dunn and Colton Parayko were scratched with upper body injuries sustained in Saturday’s game.
UP NEXT:
Avalanche: At Vegas on Wednesday night to conclude a stretch of five straight road games.
Blues: At Minnesota on Wednesday night in the first of three straight games against the Wild.
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