David Perron scored twice, Justin Faulk had a goal and an assist, and the St. Louis Blues beat the Colorado Avalanche 5-3 in Denver on Saturday night.

Ryan O'Reilly and Brayden Schenn also scored, Jordan Kyrou had two assists and Jordan Binnington made 29 saves for the Blues, who were playing their season opener.

J.T. Compher had a goal and an assist, Andre Burakovsky and Tyson Jost also scored, and Darcy Kuemper stopped 23 shots for Colorado.

Nazem Kadri had two assists for the shorthanded Avalanche.

Colorado coach Jared Bednar returned to the bench after missing the opener due to COVID-19, but the Avalanche played again without center Nathan MacKinnon, who has missed the first two games due to COVID-19 protocols. He tested positive for the virus on Tuesday.

They were also without captain Gabriel Landeskog, who served the first of his two-game suspension for boarding Chicago's Kirby Dach on Wednesday night.

The Blues held an 11-5 advantage in shots on goal in the first period, and one of those got through when Faulk beat Kuemper at 4:12 of the first period.

Colorado came on strong at the start of the second and nearly tied it when Erik Johnson's shot got by Binnington, but it hit both posts and then went out of the crease.

Schenn gave St. Louis a 2-0 lead at 8:35 of the second period, and Perron scored at 11:37 to put the Blues ahead 3-0.

The Avalanche finally broke through when Burakovsky's one-timer beat Binnington at 14:09 to make it 3-1.

St. Louis killed off a penalty early in the third and then cashed in on a power-play chance when Perron scored at 6:51.

With the teams skating 4-on-4, Kuemper came off for an extra skater with 5:56 left, and Jost scored on a tip. After both penalties expired, Compher scored on a rebound at 16:18 to cut the Blues' lead to a goal.

Colorado had a tying goal waved off at 17:11 when it was determined Jost used a kicking motion to put the puck in the net. O'Reilly scored into an empty net at 19:40.

--Field Level Media