Blues nab 7-2 victory

ST. LOUIS -- Pavol Demitra and Scott Young each scored two goals to lead the St. Louis Blues to a 7-2 victory over the Nashville Predators on Sunday night.

Demitra has a team-leading 20 goals and 38 points. Twelve of his goals have come at home. Young, who scored 40 goals last season, now has 12 goals.

Nashville, 1-9-1-0 in its last 11 games on the road, was outshot 35-19, including 12-2 in the third period.

Demitra scored a power-play goal at 9:28 of the first period to give St. Louis a lead it never lost. Al MacInnis fired in a slap shot from the point and Demitra, stationed in the slot, knocked the rebound back in over Predators goalie Tomas Vokoun, who made just his second start in the last 13 games.

The two teams combined for five goals in the second period. Young, Demitra and Mike Eastwood scored for St. Louis while Nashville netted two power-play goals from Denis Arkhipov and ex-Blue Cliff Ronning.

Young scored at 3:58 of the second period, giving St. Louis a 2-0 lead. Chris Pronger shot from the left faceoff circle but Vokoun couldn't corral the puck. It bounced out into the slot and Young skated in and knocked in the loose puck.

Nashville cut the margin to 2-1 on a power-play goal by Arkhipov on a scramble in front of the net at 8:24.

The Blues bounced right back, scoring 68 seconds later at 9:32. Demitra scored his second goal after getting a pass in front of the net from Dallas Drake for a 3-2 St. Louis advantage. Demitra missed out on a hat trick at 6:41 of the second period when an inadvertent whistle nullified a goal.

Nashville again cut the lead to a goal when Ronning scored a power-play goal at 16:49.

However, Eastwood gave St. Louis its two-goal edge back by scoring on a breakaway at 18:43. MacInnis hit Eastwood coming out of the penalty box and he put the puck between Vokoun's pads.

The Blues added three third-period goals. Sergei Varlamov scored from the blue line at 5:27, Young scored at 8:24 and Daniel Corso at 18:20.

NOTES: One of the loudest cheers of the night came in the second period when video highlights aired from the St. Louis Rams win over the Indianapolis Colts and it was announced the Rams were the West Division champions ... The Blues are 9-1-0-1 in their last 11 games at home. ... the Predators have scored 10 power-play goals in their last seven games.