ST. LOUIS _ Welcome home.
After a brutal trip that saw the Blues drop three out of four games, they were looking for better results at home and boy did they find them.
The Blues scored four times in the second period to blow open the game, and with two goals each by Brayden Schenn and Zach Sanford, beat Carolina, 6-3, before another sellout crowd at Enterprise Center. It was the Blues' first regulation win in seven games, going back to Jan. 13.
It wasn't necessarily a dominant effort by the Blues, despite the score, but they took advantage of the chances they had and blew the game open with a four-goal second period. It didn't hurt that Carolina made a lot of mistakes. When they made them, the Blues punished them.
In a wide open second period that included two goals by Schenn, Sanford scored on a wraparound goal and Colton Parayko uncorked a slapshot that probably had a lot of people wondering why they hadn't seen that more often as the Blues looked to snap out of a slump that had seen them lose five of their past six games.
The scoring started with a wraparound goal by the red-hot Sanford, who now has a point in a career-high six games. Sanford and the Blues celebrated when the puck went in, but there was no sign from the referees. They went to the video which clearly showed the puck going in before being kicked out by goalie Petr Mrazek.
Three minutes later, Parayko uncorked a slapshot off a rush for his third goal of the season and his first since Nov. 29 to make it 3-0.
For the second game in a row, the Blues' opponent got a goal thanks to a bounce off an official. This time a clearance hit referee Steve Kozari, which kept it in the Blues zone and set up a goal by Sebastian Aho.
Just over a minute later, the Blues got a power play and 12 seconds in, they had a goal. Alex Pietrangelo took a shot that Ryan O'Reilly tipped. Mrazek made a save and stopped Jaden Schwartz's rebound attempt, but the puck then came to Schenn, who put it through Joel Edmundson's legs for his 19th goal of the season.
The Blues had another power play with 9:02 to go in the second and this time, it was O'Reilly to Schwartz to Schenn and an open side of the net for his 20th goal of the season.
At that point, the Blues had six shots on goal in the period and had scored four times. They finished with seven shots on goal in the period. In the third period
Sanford scored for the first multi-goal game of his NHL career early in the third, on a slapshot from the top of the left circle that left him smiling and gave him eight goals on the season, matching his career high set last season.
Carolina got two late goals to cut into the lead.
Sammy Blais scored his first goal in three months to put the Blues up 1-0 in the first. Blais missed most of that time after needing wrist surgery _ he played just 10 games since that goal on Nov. 2 at Minnesota. This time, Justin Faulk, in his first game against the only team he had played for prior to this season, took a shot from the blueline that Mrazek stopped, but Blais was in front to snag the rebound, skate around Mrazek and put in the net for his sixth goal of the season.
The Blues, with just one win in their past six games, are looking to get out of their biggest funk of the season. Home has been good for them; they are 9-0-1 in their past 10 games at Enterprise Center.
Both teams had a power play in the first period but neither team even had a shot on goal during their time with a man advantage.
Both teams had some close calls. David Perron put a shot off the post and Tyler Bozak had a rebound skip across the crease. Carolina had a flurry of chances in front of the net but couldn't score.
Before the game, the Blues presented Edmundson with his Stanley Cup ring. Edmundson got the ring from Al MacInnis, accompanied by captains Alex Pietrangelo, Vladimir Tarasenko and Alexander Steen. Edmundson put it on, pumped his fist, and then fist bumped everyone on the Blues' bench before returning to his bench.
