David Perron had three goals and an assist for the visiting St. Louis Blues in a 4-0 win against the Minnesota Wild in Game 1 of their Western Conference first-round series on Monday in Saint Paul, Minn.

Ville Husso made 37 saves to earn a shutout in his first NHL playoff appearance. Ryan O’Reilly had a goal and an assist and Torey Krug had three assists for the Blues, who improved to 10-0-1 in their past 11 games against Minnesota.

Marc-Andre Fleury made 27 saves for the Wild, who edged out St. Louis for second place in the Central Division.

Minnesota, which finished 18th in the NHL in power play percentage (20.5) during the regular season, went 0-for-6 with the man advantage.

Husso made 14 saves in the first period and St. Louis killed three penalties while building a 2-0 lead.

St. Louis scored just before its first power play expired to take a 1-0 lead at 6:15.

Fleury made a right pad save on O’Reilly, but the rebound went to the right circle and Perron shot the puck in the net as he fell to the ice.

Later, Blues defenseman Justin Faulk took a slap shot from just above the right circle and Fleury made a save on O’Reilly’s deflection, but O’Reilly scored the rebound for a 2-0 lead at 15:56.

St. Louis had just one shot on goal during an 11:17 span of the second period, but still managed to extend its lead when Perron scored his second goal from nearly the same spot on another power play to make it 3-0 at 16:30.

Husso had 14 more saves in the second period to keep the Wild scoreless.

O’Reilly drew a double-minor high-sticking penalty on Kevin Fiala at 8:32 of the third to kill their sixth penalty of the night, and Perron completed the hat trick two seconds after the Blues’ power play ended for a 4-0 lead at 12:34.

St. Louis was fifth on the penalty kill (84.1) during the regular season.

–Field Level Media

Nashville goaltender Juuse Saros will miss at least the first two games of the Predators’ first-round Stanley Cup playoff series against Colorado due to a high left ankle sprain.

The announcement by coach John Hynes on Monday means Nashville is without its top goaltender until at least Game 3 of the series, scheduled for Saturday in Nashville. Game 1 is set for Tuesday night, with Game 2 on Thursday, with both contests in Denver.

Saros sustained the injury on April 26 against the Calgary Flames and did not play in the Predators’ final two regular-season games.

Saros’ absence leaves David Rittich or Connor Ingram as the starter in Game 1 vs. the top-seeded Avalanche. Rittich has appeared as a sub in one postseason game, when he saved six of the nine shots he faced while playing for Calgary against the Dallas Stars on Aug. 20, 2020. Ingram has no playoff experience.

Saros, 27, had a 38-25-3 record in 67 starts for the Predators this season, with a 2.64 goals-against average and a .918 save percentage.

–Field Level Media

Auston Matthews had two goals and an assist, Jack Campbell stopped 24 shots and the Toronto Maple Leafs defeated the visiting Tampa Bay Lightning 5-0 in the opener of their first-round Eastern Conference playoff series.

Mitchell Marner added a goal and two assists for Toronto. Jake Muzzin and David Kampf also scored, and Campbell earned his second career playoff shutout. Morgan Rielly and Ondrej Kase each added two assists.

Andrei Vasilevskiy made 28 saves for Tampa Bay.

Game 2 of the best-of-seven series is Wednesday in Toronto.

The Lightning had the first two power plays of the game and were ineffective.

The second power play came when Kyle Clifford was assessed a five-minute boarding penalty and a game misconduct at 6:59 of the first period. Toronto had the better chances while killing the major penalty.

Muzzin scored on a 58-foot shot through traffic at 18:19 of the first period, 16 seconds after Toronto’s second power play had expired. Kase and Ilya Mikheyev had assists.

Toronto had an 8-5 advantage in shots on goal after one period.

Matthews scored on a one-timer from the dot of the left circle on a five-on-three power play at 6:18 of the second period. Marner and John Tavares earned the assists. Mikhail Sergachev and Jan Rutta were both serving crosschecking penalties.

Kampf scored a short-handed goal at 9:27 of the second on a breakaway as a Lightning defender fell. Marner assisted on the play.

Marner put Toronto ahead 4-0 at 16:39 of the second with a goal from the slot after faking a shot. Rielly and Matthews had assists.

Matthews scored from a sharp angle from the bottom of the left circle at 8:16 of the third period as Vasilevskiy scrambled to regain his position after dealing with a dump-in pass. Kase and Rielly logged assists.

There were multiple skirmishes in the third period. Rielly and Rutta received fighting majors at 10:09. Toronto’s Ilya Lyubushkin and Rielly and Tampa Bay’s Corey Perry and Pat Maroon received misconducts.

At the game’s end, Rutta and Toronto’s Wayne Simmonds were assessed misconducts and Lyubushkin got a roughing penalty.

Jason Spezza and Justin Holl were among the scratches for Toronto.

Riley Nash and Zach Bogosian were scratched for Tampa Bay.

–Field Level Media

Vincent Trocheck and rookie Seth Jarvis each collected a goal and an assist to lift the host Carolina Hurricanes to a 5-1 victory over the Boston Bruins in Game 1 of their Eastern Conference first-round series on Monday in Raleigh, N.C.

Nino Niederreiter, Teuvo Teravainen and Andrei Svechnikov also scored for Carolina, which has outscored Boston by a 21-2 margin in four meetings in 2021-22 (three in the regular season, one in the playoffs).

Antti Raanta finished with 35 saves while making his first career playoff start in place of Frederik Andersen, who missed the Hurricanes’ final six games of the regular season with a lower-body injury. Andersen turned aside 98 of 99 shots and recorded two shutouts against Boston this season.

Taylor Hall scored early in the third period for the Bruins, who will look to rebound on Wednesday in Game 2 of the best-of-seven series.

Carolina snapped a scoreless tie with a late flourish to conclude the second period.

Defenseman Jaccob Slavin’s shot from the point was deftly deflected home by Jarvis to open the scoring with 3:32 remaining in the second. Jarvis finished the regular season on a seven-game point streak (three goals, four assists).

Niederreiter doubled the advantage just 2:10 later, after his shot from above the left circle sailed over the glove of a screened Linus Ullmark (20 saves). Hurricanes captain Jordan Staal was stationed in front of Ullmark.

Hall answered by one-timing a feed from former Hurricane Erik Haula to halve the deficit at 2:53 of the third period.

Hall’s bid to forge a tie caromed off the left post just over three minutes later, and Carolina regained its two-goal advantage shortly thereafter.

Trocheck ignited a two-on-one rush before feeding Teravainen, who rifled a shot under the crossbar at 7:02 of the third period.

Trocheck provided the back-breaking goal with 3:01 left after his backhanded shot from below the goal line banked off the head of Ullmark and into the net. Svechnikov capped the scoring one minute later with an empty-net goal.

–Field Level Media

The Colorado Avalanche came into the season with the goal of winning their first Stanley Cup in 21 years. They traded for a goaltender, Darcy Kuemper, who could backstop a championship run, they made deals before and at the deadline to fortify the roster and they looked unbeatable for most of the season.

The buildup is over, and for Colorado, the real season begins. The Avalanche, the No. 1 seed in the Western Conference, will open the playoffs against the Nashville Predators on Tuesday night at Denver in Game 1 of their first-round series.

The two teams last met just five days earlier, a 5-4 shootout win for visiting Nashville that appeared to help the Predators avoid a meeting against Colorado in the first round. However, the Predators dropped into the second Western Conference wild-card position when they couldn’t hold a 4-0 lead at Arizona and lost in regulation on Friday night.

The two teams meet in the first round for the second time in the past five seasons. In 2018, Nashville was the top seed in the conference and faced a scrappy Colorado team that snuck into the playoffs as the eighth seed. The Predators won that series in six games and now find themselves as the underdog, in part because of their goaltending situation.

Nashville’s top netminder, Juuse Saros, sustained a high left ankle sprain in the final week of the season and will miss at least the first two games against Colorado. That leaves coach John Hynes with either David Rittich or Connor Ingram in net.

Rittich made 42 saves in the Predators’ Thursday win over the Avalanche.

“I feel good about his game, which is really important,” Hynes said after that game.

The Predators have plenty of offensive firepower to match up against Colorado. Matt Duchene, whom the Avalanche took No. 3 overall in the 2009 draft, set a Nashville franchise record with 43 goals this season. Ryan Johansen has plenty of scoring ability, Filip Forsberg is a dynamic player and defenseman Roman Josi led the Predators with 96 points.

The Avalanche, on the other hand, were built for this spring. They are deep and finally healthy and have one of the best centers in the NHL, Nathan MacKinnon, as well as the possible Norris Trophy winner this season, Cale Makar.

The pieces added during the season — defenseman Josh Manson and forwards Nico Sturm and Artturi Lehkonen — add grit and scoring from the bottom six forwards.

One question will be how quickly Gabriel Landeskog can get into game shape. He hasn’t played since March 10 after knee surgery but was practicing and will play Tuesday.

“He’s worked so hard to get back from this and it’s always a work in progress,” Colorado defenseman Devon Toews said. “He’s going to have good days and bad days. Days where he’s really sore and days where he just feels really good. He’s going to bring it every night. That’s why he’s our captain and why he is our leader. We’re happy to have him back in our room.”

–Field Level Media