ST. LOUIS — Nathan Walker scored his first career hat trick and fourth-string goaltender Charlie Lindgren made 29 saves, leading the St. Louis Blues to a 6-2 victory Thursday night over the Detroit Red Wings.
The Blues recalled Walker from their AHL affiliate, the Springfield Thunderbirds, under emergency conditions Wednesday. The 27-year-old Walker, from Wales, had previously dressed in 25 NHL games, recording three goals and two assists.
Lindgren made his first start since March 7, 2020. He is fourth on the Blues’ depth chart. The 27-year-old saw his first NHL action in almost two calendar years on Tuesday and made three saves in 6:25 of relief duty.
CARLOS MONARREZ: Wings’ five-game winning streak ended, but they deserve a standing ovation
RIVALS REVIEW: Wings’ Suter to read up on Avs rivalry
DANNY THE MAN: Wings get DeKeyser back. What makes sense, both short- and long-term?
Colton Parayko, Ivan Barbashev and Marco Scandella also scored for St. Louis.
Robby Fabbri had both Detroit goals.
Walker scored twice in the first period, almost matching his career total coming into the game. He added his third goal in the final period.
Walker scored at the 6:17 mark for a 1-0 lead. Brayden Schenn won a puck along the boards and Walker picked it up. His wrist shot from the top of the right circle went through the pads of goalie Alex Nedeljkovic.
His second goal came at 16:47. Niko Mikkola skated with the puck into the zone and dropped it back to Walker. Skating into the left circle, his wrist shot beat Nedeljkovic on his glove side.
Each team scored a goal in the second period.
The Red Wings cut the lead to 2-1 when Fabbri scored from the right circle at 4:17. St. Louis got it back when Parayko tapped in a loose puck behind Nedlejkovic, who couldn’t corral a shot by Mikkola, at 16:01.
Detroit switched to Thomas Greiss in net for the third period. Nedlejkovic stopped 16 of 18 shots.
Two goals in 38 seconds in the final period put the game out of reach. First, Walker deflected a shot by Torey Krug at 9:27 for his hat trick. St. Louis made it 5-1 on a goal by Barbashev at 10:11. Barbashev has six goals in his last seven games.
Detroit got its final goal when Fabbri scored at 15:27.
Scandella added an empty-netter to complete the scoring.
HOME SWEET HOME
The Blues have won six straight games at home. It’s their longest such streak since taking nine in a row from Dec. 12, 2019, through Jan. 13, 2020.