ST. LOUIS (AP) -David Perron and the St. Louis Blues got off to a fast start Tuesday night and never let up.
Perron had two goals, and the Blues scored on three of their first eight shots in a 5-2 victory over the Dallas Stars.
"I liked the way that we stay hard on the puck," Blues coach Andy Murray said. "We had some other great chances. I liked how we stayed into the game and stayed on them."
St. Louis improved to 3-0 against the Stars this season and jumped to 11th place in the Western Conference with 68 points. Dallas stayed in 10th, tied with Minnesota with 70 points.
Perron scored only two goals in his previous 11 games.
"For sure, we started the game strong early," he said. "That was the key to the game. That was a big game for us and a big win."
St. Louis took a 1-0 lead just 59 seconds into the game. David Backes skated in alone just inside the blue line and beat Marty Turco for his 22nd goal.
"When you see a guy like that get a big goal for us early," Perron said. "We just had to keep it going and that's what we did. We scored three in the first."
Perron made it 2-0 at 6:32 on the Blues' third shot of the game, sliding the puck under Turco's left side.
Brad Winchester chased Turco with a power-play goal at 11:56, his 11th of the season. Turco (30-25-8), who has allowed 11 goals against St. Louis this season, was replaced by Tobias Stephan.
"You always expect the best even when you're not feeling your best," Turco said. "You work hard on the fundamentals and you rely on them but it wasn't my night."
Dallas scored twice in the second on goals by James Neal and Mike Ribeiro. Neal's 22nd of the season was the Stars' first power-play goal in three games and 12 chances against the Blues. Dallas failed to score on three power-play chances in the third.
"We came out, battled had a good second period there," said Chris Mason, who finished with 20 saves for St. Louis. "And in the third period we came out and shut them down."
Perron and Keith Tkachuk scored in the second for St. Louis. Tkachuk's power-play tally with just over four minutes remaining was his 20th goal of the season. Tkachuk has hit that mark in 15 seasons.
Notes: Actor Jason Bateman, in town filming a movie with George Clooney, was shown on the big screen and greeted with loud applause. ... Dallas RW Mark Parrish was leveled at mid-ice on a hit by Jay McKee early in the first period and didn't return. ... Stars RW Jere Lehtinen missed his fourth straight game due to an upper body injury. ... St. Louis C Andy McDonald has 12 points in 14 games since returning to the lineup Feb. 10 after recovering from a broken ankle.
