Blues down Blackhawks on home ice

Playing at the Scottrade Center Thursday (Oct. 1), the St. Louis Blues collected a 5-2 pre-season win against the Chicago Blackhawks thanks in part to a goal and assist from Jori Lehtera who was playing his first game since undergoing ankle surgery in August.

Lehtera was named as the game’s Second Star for his efforts as he showed himself to be regular season ready.

Teams traded the lead early on, the Blues carrying a 3-2 lead out of the first period, then adding single unanswered goals in both the second and third periods.

Kevin Shattenkirk‘s powerplay tally with 2:52 to go in the opening frame, from Colton Parayko and Jaden Schwartz put the Blues up 3-2 and stood up as the game winner.  Dmitrij Jaskin and Troy Brouwer had the earlier goals with assists for David Backes Parayko and Lehtera.

Schwartz set up Lehtera for the lone second period tally, a shorthanded effort and Kyle Brodziak counted the Blues’ second shorty in the third from Steve Ott and Robert Bortuzzo. Jake Allen picked up the win with 20 saves in goal for the Blues.

Dennis Rasmussen and Brandon Mashinter, the latter also called up earlier in the day, had the Blackhawk goals with help from Ryan Hartman, Marko Dano, Vincent Hinostroza and Viktor Tikhonov. Scott Darling turned aside 19 shots for the Blackhawks.

Brouwer was named as the team’s First Star and Schwartz the Third Star.

The Hawks will play one more pre-season match, playing host to the Dallas Stars on Saturday (Oct. 3) but the Blues are done, wrapping up a 4-2 pre-season, it will not finalize its roster and head into the 2015-16 season next Thursday (Oct. 8) on home ice against the Edmonton Oilers.