Carter Hutton, Blues shut out Sharks

SAN JOSE -- Backup goaltender Carter Hutton made 23 saves for his fifth NHL shutout, and the St. Louis Blues ended a two-game losing streak with a 4-0 win against the San Jose Sharks at SAP Center on Saturday.
Colton Parayko and David Perron scored in the second period, and Jori Lehtera and Alexander Steen scored in the third for St. Louis (22-16-5), which lost to the Los Angeles Kings 5-1 on Thursday.

WATCH: All Blues vs. Sharks highlights
Hutton started in place of Jake Allen, who was pulled from three of his past five starts, including Thursday. Hutton is 3-0-1 with two shutouts against the Sharks.
"Obviously that's the cherry on top," Hutton said of the shutout. "My last games have been good. I feel solid. It was a great team effort."
Martin Jones made 21 saves for San Jose (25-16-2).
The Blues took a 1-0 lead at 5:27 of the second period when Parayko scored on a power play with Sharks captain Joe Pavelski in the penalty box for interference. Parayko's goal came shortly after the Blues killed a 5-on-3 power play. St. Louis scored first for the second time in its past 10 games.
"It was key," Parayko said. "It was a game where both teams were kind of playing great defensively. When you get a chance to get up like that in a game like this, it's huge."

Perron made it 2-0 at 10:01 of the second period with his 11th goal of the season. Lehtera deflected Alex Pietrangelo's point shot past Jones at 9:16 of the third period, and Steen scored into an empty net at 14:37.
Sharks center Joe Thornton drew a five-minute penalty and a game misconduct for spearing Blues center Paul Stastny at 11:09 of the second period. It was Thornton's first game misconduct since Nov. 4, 2010, for a hit to Perron's head.
"The game declined from that point on," Sharks center Logan Couture said. "For guys like [Pavelski], myself, [Patrick Marleau], we want to elevate our games at that point. And the younger guys should try to elevate their games with the opportunity. It didn't happen tonight."
St. Louis is 6-11-1 on the road.
"It's awesome," Hutton said of winning a road game. "We talked about our game. We know we're a good team, how stressed we were about stuff but we're still in a pretty good spot. This is a tough building to come into and win, so we're pretty happy."

Goal of the game

Parayko beat Jones with a slap shot from above the right circle that deflected off the stick of Sharks defenseman Marc-Edouard Vlasic and past Jones.
Parayko did not score in his first 40 games but has two goals in his past three.

Save of the game

Hutton got his pads closed to stop Thornton's one-timer from the right circle 5:56 into in the first period.

Unsung performance of the game

The Blues penalty kill was 3-for-3, including a 5-on-3 in the second period.

Highlight of the game

Parayko's shot went off defenseman Brenden Dillon's skate, and Perron got to the puck and jammed it between the right post and Jones' left pad.
"I just whacked it," Perron said. "Those plays will sometimes happen in practice and you just do it to see how the puck reacts. ... You're hoping it goes up above their pad and somehow it goes in, and that's exactly what happened there."

They said it

"I've battled against him a few times, and sometimes guys get angry if you get in their way or give them a crosscheck. But it's an obvious call. It's a dangerous play." -- Blues center Paul Stastny on being speared by Sharks center Joe Thornton
"The first half of the game it's going pretty good. They've had some chances and we've had some chances. A lot of the momentum shifted when we couldn't get a goal on 5-on-3 and I miss an open net. We take a penalty and they get a quick one. We should have been up 1-0." -- Sharks forward Joe Pavelski

Need to know

Sharks defenseman David Schlemko (upper body) returned to the lineup after missing five games, and defenseman Paul Martin (lower body) returned after missing one. ... Sharks forward Joonas Donskoi was scratched with an upper-body injury. ... Blues forward Dmitrij Jaskin returned to the lineup after being scratched the previous three games; he replaced Scottie Upshall. … The Sharks and Blues played here for the first time since San Jose won the Western Conference Final in the Stanley Cup Playoffs on May 25 with a 5-2 victory in Game 6. St. Louis is 2-0-0 against San Jose this season.

What's next

Blues: At the Anaheim Ducks on Sunday (9 p.m. ET; FS-MW, PRIME, NHL.TV)
Sharks: Host the Winnipeg Jets on Monday (4 p.m. ET; TSN3, CSN-CA, NHL.TV)