Blues give up first goal, then shut down Kraken

Nathan Walker had a goal and an assist and Joel Hofer made 19 saves as the St. Louis Blues handled the visiting Seattle Kraken 4-1 Sunday.

Jordan Kyrou, Kasperi Kapanen and Brayden Schenn also scored for the Blues (43-33-5, 91 points), who won for the third time in their last four games.

Jared McCann scored and Joey Daccord made 25 saves for the Kraken (33-34-13, 79 points).

The Kraken took a 1-0 lead with 5:36 left in the first period. McCann stole the puck from defenseman Marco Scandella at the left point, then raced up the right wing and snapped a shot past Hofer on the glove side.

Kapanen tied the game less than four minutes later. He took a pass from Alexey Toropchenko, burst up the left wing and fired a shot through Daccord.

The Kraken got a four-minute power play to close the first period and start the second. Andre Burakovsky nearly capitalized in the final minute of the first period, but his shot rang off the crossbar.

St. Louis killed off the second half of the penalty and got a good short-handed scoring chance, but Daccord stopped Kapanen rush up the left wing.

Robert Thomas set up Bolduc for another clean break-in, but Bolduc hit the left post after sliding the puck under Daccord.

The Blues moved ahead 2-1 just 59 seconds into the third period. Matt Kessel shot from the right point and Kyrou converted the weak-side rebound.

St. Louis was dangerous on a late power play, but Pavel Buchnevich hit the post with a shot and Daccord stopped Kyrou's shot from the slot.

Schenn made it 3-1 with 3:23 left in the third by taking a lead pass from Nick Leddy and converting a semi-breakaway. He fought off a slash and fired a bad-angle shot that caromed off Daccord's skate into the net.

With Daccord off the ice for an extra attacker, Walker scored an empty-net goal with a minute left for the final 4-1 margin.