Krug scores first goal with Blues in win against Kings

ST. LOUIS -- Torey Krug scored his first goal with the St. Louis Blues in a 4-2 win against the Los Angeles Kings at Enterprise Center on Saturday.

Krug signed a seven-year, $45.5 million contract with the Blues Oct. 9 after nine seasons with the Boston Bruins. He gave St. Louis a 1-0 lead on a slap shot from the point at 13:12 of the first period.
It was the Blues' first power-play goal of the season after failing to score on their first 14 opportunities.
"It feels good," Krug said. "Obviously our power play was not catching any breaks there. We need to work a little bit harder and hopefully now that we've got one, the floodgates will open and we'll feel the confidence to continue to work.
"Hopefully it's the first of many."
David Perron had a goal and an assist, Ryan O'Reilly and Robert Thomas each had had two assists for St. Louis (3-1-1). Jordan Binnington made 21 saves.
"We've got to tighten up defensively, a couple too many turnovers in the D-zone and loose coverage and we've been doing that all year," Thomas said. "[Binnington] has been standing on his head since Game 1 and given us a chance to win every night. We've just got to tighten it up a little bit defensively and 'Binner's' always got our backs."

Adrian Kempe scored in his third straight game, and Cal Petersen made 26 saves for the Kings (1-2-2) in their road opener.
The Blues will host the Kings here again on Sunday (8 p.m. ET; FS-MW, FS-W, NHL.TV).
"We created a few chances early then we kind of sat back a little bit in the first period, but I still think we can start better," Los Angeles coach Todd McLellan said. "We need one of those explosive starts that we had in a few games last year that allows us to get on top of teams so instead of receiving the game, we can [dictate] the aggressiveness of it going the other way."
Kempe scored 57 seconds into the second period on a one-timer to tie it 1-1 after Alex Iafallo won a face-off.

Vince Dunn gave the Blues a 2-1 lead with a wrist shot from the high slot at 2:53 of the second.
Perron made it 3-1 at 7:25 of the second period with a wrist shot from the slot after taking a behind-the-back pass from Thomas.
Dustin Brown scored during a 5-on-3 man-advantage to cut the lead to 3-2 at 16:29 of the second.
Los Angeles was 1-for-5 on the power play.
"We did a good job drawing the penalties that we did," Kings defenseman Matt Roy said. "That always gives our team a bit of momentum."

Jaden Schwartz scored an empty-net goal at 19:58 of the third for the 4-2 final.
"I liked the third period for the most part," Blues coach Craig Berube said. "I think we were in pretty good control of it. We played a smart third period. We could be a little bit more aggressive and try and get that next goal.
"I think we are just a little bit tentative at times. I'd like to get that next goal. I'd like to be a little bit more aggressive. But pretty smart overall."
NOTES: St. Louis has outscored Los Angeles 17-5 in four straight wins dating to last season. … Kings center Anze Kopitar passed forward Luc Robitaille and moved into third on their all-time list by playing his 1,078th NHL game with Los Angeles. Brown leads with 1,188 games played; forward Dave Taylor played 1,111. … Roy played his 100th NHL game. ... O'Reilly got his 100th assist with the Blues.