DALLAS — Charlie Lindgren made 33 saves to help the St. Louis Blues to a 4-1 win against the Dallas Stars at American Airlines Center on Tuesday.
Lindgren has won each of his first four games this season (three starts) and has a 1.29 goals-against average and a .956 save percentage. Vladimir Tarasenko had a goal and two assists for the Blues (16-8-5), who extended their point streak to six games (4-0-2).
“It’s really fun right now,” Lindgren said. “The team’s playing well, and we’ve got a great group of guys. Winning always makes everything a blast, so it’s a lot of fun.”
Riley Damiani scored in his NHL debut for the Stars (13-11-2), who have lost four in a row and had won eight straight at home. Jake Oettinger made 24 saves.
“We had some guys who, I’ll have to check the video to see if they even played,” Dallas coach Rick Bowness said. “I couldn’t find them on the ice. Unless you want to show up and get your nose dirty and get involved in a game like that, then you’re a complete non-factor and we had a few of those guys that were complete no-shows. We have no chance if we have guys that don’t want to show up and play in those games.”
Damiani gave the Stars a 1-0 lead after a cross-ice pass from John Klingberg at 15:57 of the second period.
“It was a little scary, but it was fun,” Damiani said. “I had a lot of fun and the guys helped me out a lot. It was a quick turnaround. (I) got in today and didn’t get to skate this morning, so guys just helped me out with a lot of the systems stuff and just being comfortable and telling me to play my own game. That’s kind of what I did out there.”
Blues defenseman Colton Parayko tied it 1:06 later during a scramble in front to make it 1-1 at 17:03.
Justin Faulk, also a defenseman, gave St. Louis a 2-1 lead when his shot from the point got through traffic at 2:07 of the third period. Faulk played 22:55 in his first game since Nov. 30; he missed six games in NHL COVID-19 protocol.
“It’s big, it’s part of the style we want to play,” Faulk said. “I think you see a lot of other teams playing that too. With guys getting up in the rush and being aggressive and skating, it makes it tougher. It makes the other team be honest; they can come in on a forecheck and if they don’t finish their check, you can get up the ice and beat them and create an opportunity and maybe score.”
Ryan O’Reilly made it 3-1 with a power-play goal at 11:33, and Tarasenko also scored on the power play at 18:43 for the 4-1 final.
“I think in the third, we just had two unlucky bounces, one hit off our guy’s stick and one off our guy’s skate,” Oettinger said. “Sometimes it just doesn’t go your way and the other team gets bounces like that. It was a close game and it [stinks] that it ended up that way, but it could have just as easily happened for us too. A couple [lousy] bounces, but that’s hockey sometimes.”
Lindgren made 12 saves in the third period.
“I thought it was a real smart game,” Blues coach Craig Berube said. “I thought our guys played really hard physically. I thought we dictated the game in the first period with the physicality. That was what we wanted to do, we wanted to get on their [defensemen] and bang them and make it a hard game.
“Guys did a good job. They’re a good team over there and they hung in there too, and they had their opportunities.”
NOTES: St. Louis will host Dallas on Friday. … Lindgren is the second goalie in Blues history to win each of his first four games with them (Ryan Miller, 2013-14). … Blues forward Pavel Buchnevich had two assists, his third multipoint game in the past five. … St. Louis forward Alexei Toropchenko made his NHL debut and had two shots on goal in 8:19 of ice time. … Blues center Tyler Bozak was also removed from COVID-19 protocol and had one shot in 19:22. Bozak, who missed seven games, won eight of 14 face-offs. … Stars forwards Jamie Benn and Joe Pavelski each had six shots on goal, and defenseman Ryan Suter had five.
