ST. LOUIS _ As home openers go, Saturday's contest with the visiting Dallas Stars was just about everything a Blues fan could hope for. An early lead, sharp goaltending by Jake Allen, and Vladimir Tarasenko providing the cherry on top with his first goal of the season in a 4-2 Blues victory at Scottrade Center.
The Stars finally got on the board on their 30th shot of the evening. On the power play after an interference penalty against rookie forward Tage Thompson, defensive John Klingberg scored on a slapshot just inside the blue line at the 2:48 mark of the third period.
But Vladimir Tarasenko made sure there was no Dallas comeback on this night. With Brett Ritchie serving a minor for Dallas, Tarsenko took a crossing pass from Alex Pietrangelo and fired a wrist shot over Jari Lehtonen's left shoulder. The roof shot restored the Blues' three-goal lead at 4-1 at the 8:31 mark of the third.
After a bit of a slow start, the Blues got going in a big way midway through the first period. Carl Gunnarsson and Joel Edmundson beat Lehtonen with goals just 84 seconds apart for a 2-0 lead. Edmundson's goal gave Blues defensemen five goals among the team's first seven scores this season.
And they weren't done yet in the opening period. Jaden Schwartz, on a great pass by Dmitrij Jaskin, deked Lehtonen to the goalies' left and then found a basically open net to the right at the 14:50 mark, giving the Blues a 3-0 lead.
