In St Paul, David Perron hit for a hat trick on Monday night to lead the St Louis Blues to a 4-0 win over the Minnesota Wild in Game 1 of their first round Stanley Cup Playoff series 
Ville Husso made 37 saves in the Blues shut out win.
“It feels good to get the win, for sure,” Husso said. “I was a little nervous before, like normally, but got a good start for the game. Guys battled hard. The penalty kill was unreal. Power play was good (2-for-6), so it was a big win for us.”
Peron scored his first goal off the power play in the opening frame for a 1-0 lead.
“[The] next game, I think it’s going to be a lot different,” Perron said. “If they grab the first goal tonight, it’s probably a different game. It’s huge in playoffs to get the first one. We’ve just got to turn the page and get ready for the next one.”
Ryan O;Rielly added a single marker in the first, for a 2-0 advantage to St Louis.
“That’s our season,” Minnesota coach Dean Evason said. “Our special teams has not been very good. … For us to have success, we’ve got to stay out of the box and we’ve got to play 5-on-5 because we really, really liked our game 5-on-5.”
Peron’s second goal came in the middle frame, and was also scored off the power play, for a 3-0 lead.
“Yeah, after all these years, it’s a long way coming for many reasons, many ways, so obviously I’m proud of that,” Perron said. “It’s super cool. I have a lot of pride wearing the ‘Blue Note,’ and yeah, I’ll leave it at that.”
Game 2 is on Thursday, in St Paul.
“Husso made some good saves,” the Wild’s Kevin Fiala said. “You can’t say we didn’t try. We had great opportunities 5-on-5 and on the power play as well. We hit the bar, I don’t know how many times today (three); it can go the other way and it looks differently.
“But we have to let it go now. It’s Game 1 and it’s playoff hockey. It’s best-of-7. We have to be ready for the next one.”
Peron finished his hat trick in the third period to become the first Blues skater to hit for a hat trick in the first game of the Stanley Cup Playoff.
Marc-Andre Fleury made 27 saves in the Wild loss.
“It was a good way to get into the game early on, if you make the save,” Fleury said. “I thought we had a good start. The team was skating well, and we had the puck a bunch. I wanted to make the save and keep the momentum going for us. That was fun. The crowd got on their feet and stuff, it’s just too bad [about] the rest of the game.”
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