LAS VEGAS (AP) St. Louis forward David Perron has zero points in two games against the Vegas Golden Knights.
He has two wins, though.
Perron made an emotional return to Vegas and Ryan O’Reilly scored twice to lead the Blues over the Golden Knights 4-1 on Friday night. Brayden Schenn and Oskar Sundqvist also scored for St. Louis.
“It’s fun from the warm-up on to the last minute,” said Perron, who had a career-best 66 points with Vegas last season. “Obviously a lot of energy in this crowd and it’s always fun coming here. I got so many messages. … I feel the love from this city for sure.”
Perron, who set the NHL record for most assists (50) by a player on an expansion team with the Golden Knights before signing with St. Louis as a free agent, made it no secret he wanted to re-sign with Vegas, but couldn’t come to terms with the club during the offseason.
“It’s unfortunate how it worked out,” Perron said. “I still wish it could’ve been different.”
While the Blues improved to 2-0-0 against Vegas and 4-1-0 against the Pacific Division this season, the Golden Knights are struggling to find the same magic they had during last year’s run to the Stanley Cup Final.
Vegas had scored four or more goals in three of its past four games but was shut down by Jake Allen. The Blues goalie stopped 32 shots after allowing three or more goals in five of his previous six outings.
“We know what kind of team they are,” Allen said. “We played them a couple of weeks ago … very offensive, very opportunistic team. They usually get their chances most games and we were able to shut them down.”
William Carrier scored for the Golden Knights, and Marc-Andre Fleury made 31 saves.
After posting a career-best 2.24 goals against average last season, Fleury’s 2.52 GAA is his second-highest since the 2009-10 season.
Sundqvist, who has six goals in his 79-game career, has scored three of them against Fleury this season, also scoring two on Nov. 1 in a 5-3 win at St. Louis.
“It’s been working against Vegas so far this season,” Sundqvist said “I’ve gotten a lot of help with all the goals from my linemates and D-men. I don’t know why it’s been working, especially against Fleury, because I never scored on him before.”
Moments after Vegas opened the scoring with Carrier’s breakaway goal against Allen, the Blues tied it when O’Reilly flipped it just under Fleury’s arm.
St. Louis took a 2-1 lead in the second period when O’Reilly deflected Jaden Schwartz‘s shot from the right wing. Schenn scored off a faceoff for a 3-1 lead later in the period, and Sundqvist scored 59 seconds later.
The Golden Knights have been outscored in the second period 28-17.
“It’s early in the season I know, but this has happened way too often,” center Pierre-Edouard Bellemare said. “I think the coaches probably have a better answer than I will have. It’s one bad bounce and then suddenly we’re two or three behind. I really couldn’t pinpoint what is going on. But it seems to happen every time in the second.”
NOTES: The Golden Knights played their final game without suspended defenseman Nate Schmidt, who sat the first 20 games for violating the league’s Performance Enhancing Substances Program. … Gunnarsson left the game with an upper-body injury and did not return. … Vladimir Tarasenko had two assists and has a point in seven of his last nine games. … St. Louis is now 3-0-2 against the Golden Knights since the start of last season. … O’Reilly leads the Blues with 10 goals and 23 points.
UP NEXT
Blues: Travels to play San Jose on Saturday
Golden Knights: Visits Edmonton on Sunday.
Photo credit – Associated Press / Las Vegas, NV