Blues drop Red Wings

The St. Louis Blues quickly made the most of their limited opportunities.

Jaden Schwartz knocked home his own rebound and the Blues scored four times on only five shots on the way to beating the Detroit Red Wings 6-1 Saturday.

Vladimir Sobotka, Scottie Upshall, Jay Bouwmeester, Brayden Schenn and Dmitrij Jaskin also had goals for the Blues in their third straight victory.

“That really didn’t seem like a 6-1 game,” Bouwmeester said. “We had the lead for most of it, but we weren’t playing great.”

Frans Nielsen scored for Detroit, which has won just once in its last eight games.

Outshot 29-22, including an 11-4 margin during the first period, the Blues took advantage of some spectacular puck stopping from Jake Allen and some questionable goals against Detroit goalie Jimmy Howard to fashion a 4-0 lead through the first two periods.

“We spent a lot of time in our zone, but we were able to keep them to the outside and Jake was great,” Bouwmeester said. “He let us take advantage of the opportunities we did have.”

Howard continued his struggles of the past few weeks, allowing four or more goals for the fifth time in eight starts and sixth time in nine appearances.

“What it came down to is I need to come with saves for the guys,” Howard said. “At the end of the day, the guys did their job and I have to do mine for them.”

Shortly after killing off a high-sticking penalty, the Blues opened the scoring at 11:50 of the first period.