ST. LOUIS _ It was throwback night for the Blues on Thursday, as they wore the jerseys they wore in the late 1990s, in the era of Brett Hull and Wayne Gretzky and when Enterprise Center was brand new and called Kiel Center.
The Blues scored goals like it was 1995, scoring five goals for only the fifth time this season as they handed yet another loss to the flailing Flames, 5-0 on Thursday at Enterprise Center.
Oskar Sundqvist had his second career two-goal game, scoring on a breakaway in the second period and then into an open net after Calgary goalie David Rittich had the puck taken away from him behind his own net in the third. Zach Sanford, David Perron and Vince Dunn also scored for the Blues and Sanford had three assists for his first career four-point game.
Jordan Binnington stopped 40 shots for his first shutout of the season and sixth of his career.
It was a rare blowout win for the Blues, who hadn't won a game by more than one goal, not counting empty-net goals, since Oct. 24.
One of the big highlights of the game didn't involve a goal, but a hit by Dunn on Andrew Mangiapane that led to a Blues power play, which led to Perron's goal that made it 3-0. Four times this season the Blues have led a game 2-0; this was the first time they've extended the lead to 3-0. The Blues have led by three goals only twice this season; both of those came on late empty net goals.
Sundqvist got his second goal in as many games when Sanford flipped out of his own end and Sundqvist got it at the red line and came in alone on Rittich, taking a shot that hit Rittich's glove and went into the net with 13:37 to go in the period.
Three minutes later, Dunn leveled Calgary's Andrew Mangiapane with a hit that sent him flying. It was a clean hit, Dunn didn't leave his feet and Mangiapane was up right away, but Calgary's Zac Rinaldo took exception and went after Dunn, picking up a two-minute penalty for roughing and giving the Blues a power play. Twenty-four seconds in, Perron scored his 10th goal of the season at the end of some nice passing. Alex Pietrangelo and Brayden Schenn got the assists. The Blues had gone 0 for 8 on the power play over the previous two games.
It got confusing at the end of the period. Pietrangelo was called for interference and with 25 seconds to go in the penalty, Ivan Barbashev was called for holding, giving the Flames a 5 on 3. That lasted four seconds before Elias Lindholm tripped Ryan O'Reilly after the ensuing faceoff, taking it to a 4 on 3, which the Blues killed, getting things back to even strength. The Blues will eventually have a four-second power play when it's all done.
There were some close calls along the way for the Blues, with Jordan Binnington stopping a breakaway and Justin Faulk knocking the puck off the stick of Sean Monahan just before he shot into an empty net.
Sanford, who was 4 when the team last wore these, uh, colorful uniforms hit a spinning one-timer off another pretty pass from Robert Thomas _ that's two in two games for him _ to put the Blues up 1-0 on the Calgary Flames after one period on Thursday night.
Thomas skated around in his own end, reversed field on a dime and then backhanded a pass to Sanford just inside the left circle off the slot who one-timed it in for his second goal of the season. Sanford's only other goal came when a shot by Alexander Steen grazed his stick in Detroit.
Calgary had 16 shots on goal in the first period. That's two less than Tampa Bay had in the entire game against the Blues on Tuesday, though Calgary didn't have many really good chances. For the Blues, Tyler Bozak had three shots on goal, which matches the number he's had in his past six games combined.
Retro is in and the players seem to like the uniforms, but seen in abundance, the image of all that red can be a bit overwhelming. This is the first of three times the team will wear them this season. (Note than when these uniforms were in everyday usage, they weren't worn at Enterprise; back then, NHL teams wore white at home, dark on the road, so these are actually the Blues' old road uniforms.)
To get in the spirit of the game, the Blues decked their scoreboard out in graphics from the 1990s, with large blocky letters and simple fonts.
