Rookie nets two goals in Blues' comeback

~ St. Louis scored four goals in the second period of a 4-3 victory over the Red Wings.

ST. LOUIS -- Rookie forward David Perron is giving the Blues every reason to keep him in the NHL.

Perron scored twice in St. Louis' four-goal second period and the Blues rallied from two down to beat the Detroit Red Wings 4-3 on Tuesday night.

St. Louis will have a decision to make once Perron plays another game, whether to keep him with the big club for the rest of the season or return him to Lewiston of the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League. If he keeps playing this well, the choice could be easy.

"You always have to prove something," Perron said. "Even if I stay the whole year, I still have to prove that the team made a good decision. I'm trying to play those kinds of games like I did tonight every night."

The Blues, who snapped a three-game losing streak, fell behind 2-0 but stormed back in the middle frame against goalie Dominik Hasek. Keith Tkachuk and Jamal Mayers joined Perron in the scoring spurt, and the final three goals came in a span of four shots.

"You need a little bit of luck and we needed contributions from other guys," Mayers said. "We got that."

Pavel Datsyuk, Dan Cleary and Valtteri Filppula scored for Detroit, which lost the lead in the second period despite holding a 17-7 shots advantage in the frame. The Red Wings dropped their second straight following a nine-game winning streak.

"It's disappointing," Red Wings coach Mike Babcock said. "Let's not kid ourselves. We're up 2-0, we're on the road in our division. You've got to find a way to keep on going."

Tkachuk's sixth of the season, scored during a 5-on-3 power play, cut the deficit to 2-1 at 5:09. Tkachuk put in a rebound of Lee Stempniak's shot from the left corner.

The Blues then scored three times in a span of 2:37 to grab the lead for good. Perron tied it at 2-2 with a breakaway goal at 13:14.

Perron gave the Blues a 3-2 lead at 14:47 with a power-play goal, banging home Steve Wagner's shot from the point. Perron doubled his season output to four goals.

Mayers' slap shot from the top of the right circle at 15:51, after a drop pass from Martin Rucinsky, made it 4-2 and chased Hasek. He was replaced by Chris Osgood after allowing four goals on 12 shots.

The Red Wings grabbed a 1-0 lead on Datsyuk's third of the season. Cleary made it 2-0 at 16:04 of the first when his backhander from between the circles beat Legace glove side for his sixth of the season.

Filppula made it 4-3 with 4:47 left but Detroit couldn't net the tying goal.

"I think we've been guilty a few times of not having that killer instinct," Babcock said. "We've got to put our foot on them and not let them up, and we didn't do that."

Legace stopped 26 shots to earn the victory.