ST. LOUIS _ Jaden Schwartz had his fourth career hat trick and David Perron scored two goals and the Blues welcomed Vladimir Tarasenko back to the lineup by not needing any goals from him in a 7-2 win over Edmonton on Tuesday at Enterprise Center.
The win kept the Blues five points back of Nashville for second in the Central Division and ahead of Dallas for third. Alex Pietrangelo and Pat Maroon also scored for the Blues. It was the third straight game with a goal for Maroon.
Oskar Sundqvist left the game with 5:13 to play when he was shoved into the boards by Milan Lucic. Lucic got a game misconduct.
Schwartz, for whom goals have come very grudgingly this season, scored from a very tight angle in the first period, scored again in the second period and then on a power play with 1:12 to play. He had also had an assist for his third career four-point game.
Schwartz has 10 goals and four in five games. His career low for a full season (more than 70 games) is 19. Earlier in the first period Tuesday, Schwartz had the puck in the slot with a good scoring chance but chose to pass. On the goal, he had the puck low in the zone and with very little space to shoot at, went far post on Mikko Koskinen and put it in off the iron.
Perron had an assist on the goal to extend his personal point streak to 16 games. There are only three longer streaks in Blues history: 25 and 20 games by Brett Hull and 19 by Blake Dunlop. Perron is tied with Phil Goyette at 16.
Schwartz got his second goal off a pass from Tyler Bozak with Pat Maroon getting in front of Koskinen in goal. That made it 3-0.
The Blues went up 2-0 just 27 seconds into the period when Alex Pietrangelo finished off a two-on-one break off an assist from Schwartz. Pietrangelo came in pretty much alone from the blueline, went left to get around Koskinen and backhanded it in.
Koskinen came out after Schwartz's second goal and was replaced by Anthony Stolarz. Ninety-two seconds after Stolarz came in, Perron got his 19th goal of the season, banking it in off Stolarz's back from behind the goal line. Perron scored on a power play in the third period when he redirected in a shot from Brayden Schenn to make it 5-2. A few minutes later, Perron had a shot go off the post with a chance for a hat trick.
The Blues were up 4-0 after Perron's first goal and they looked to be sailing until two mistakes in goal by Jordan Binnington. He misplayed an attempt to clear a puck, got caught out of his net and Jay Bouwmeester was forced to commit a penalty, which led to a sixth attacker, which led to a goal by Ryan Nugent-Hopkins that initially looked like Binnington had stopped, but replays showed had crossed the line.
Forty-six seconds later, Binnington overcommitted to his right and couldn't get back across the crease when Zack Kassian stuffed in a wraparound.
The Blues controlled the first period, outshooting Edmonton 13-5. Tarasenko, in his first game back after missing five games to an injury, had a breakaway that Koskinen blocked with his upper arm. The Blues had a power play that they didn't have a shot on goal on and killed an Edmonton power play. The Blues are outshooting 28-13 after two periods.
The Tarasenko-Schenn-Ryan O'Reilly line was quiet for a change, with Schenn's power-play assist the only point for the group.
