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Schwartz's hat trick leads Blues over Coyotes

Oct 19, 2014 - 5:35 AM Glendale, AZ (SportsNetwork.com) - Jaden Schwartz notched his first career hat trick, leading the St. Louis Blues to a 6-1 victory over the Arizona Coyotes on Saturday.

Alexander Steen and David Backes each tallied a goal and an assist, Jori Lehtera scored his first career goal and added two helpers and Schwartz also added an assist for the Blues, who rebounded from Thursday's 1-0 shootout loss in Los Angeles.

"The puck was just kind of finding me," Schwartz said. "It was nice seeing them go in."

Vladimir Tarasenko finished with three assists and Jake Allen made 24 saves in the win.

Lauri Korpikoski scored Arizona's lone goal and Mike Smith allowed all six goals on 36 shots.

"It was a test against a really good team and we didn't fare very well," Arizona head coach Dave Tippett said.

St. Louis opened the scoring with 2:18 to play in the first period. Backes swatted home Tarasenko's shot in a scrum in front of the net 18 seconds after Arizona defenseman Oliver Ekman-Larsson went off for interference.

At 11:42 of the second, it was a 2-0 Blues lead. Tarasenko's shot from the left side was kicked away by Smith, but Backes gathered the rebound and sent it over to Steen, who one-timed it in from the right circle.

Schwartz's wrist shot just over a minute later increased St. Louis' lead to 3-0.

The Blues added another goal 55 seconds into the final stanza. Lehtera won the faceoff over to Schwartz, who ripped a laser past Smith from the hash marks of the right circle.

Just over a minute Steen went off for cross checking, Shane Doan sent a slick no-look pass from behind the net to the slot, where Korpikoski wristed the puck past Allen to put the Coyotes on the board midway through the third.

Lehtera entered the Arizona zone off a lead pass from Steen and wristed a shot through Smith's five-hole to notch his milestone marker with 7:58 remaining.

Schwartz lifted a loose rebound at the right side of the net with three seconds to play to cap the scoring.

Game Notes

Backes registered his 200th career assist ... St. Louis forward Paul Stastny left the game with an upper-body injury and Arizona forward Martin Hanzal also didn't return after suffering a lower-body injury ... The Blues have won five straight games in Arizona.