The St. Louis Blues spent Friday's practice working -- and talking -- about an area of their game from Thursday's season-opener that needed rectifying.

Win the net front battle. Or at least have more of a presence of it in the offensive zone.

Despite penalty troubles that prevented the Blues from playing much of a 5-on-5 game and trying to establish O-zone time and work on net front battles, they saved the most important time of the game to implement it.

Jake Neighbours scored twice, his first goals scored in his hometown; Robert Thomas had a goal and and assist; Pius Suter picked up his first goal as a Blue, and Joel Hofer made 27 saves, including a number of massive stops when the Blues were down a goal to keep them in it before rallying past the Calgary Flames, 4-2 at Scotiabank Saddledome on Saturday.

The Blues (1-1-0) picked up their first win of the season while sending the Flames, playing their home opener, to their second straight loss (1-2-0).

Let's get right to it for observations from today's game:

* Hofer was key to the comeback -- The Blues were trailing the game 1-0 on the first of two goals by Matt Coronato, a power-play goal at 14:49 of the first period, and just didn't seem like they had much cohesion going in this one.

Penalties were an issue and something that needs to be cleaned up, giving the Flames six power plays, but when called upon, Hofer was up to the challenge on multiple Grade A scoring chances that could have extended Calgary's lead and likely prevented the Blues from staying in the game:

In making saves on off backdoor plays, post to post, Hofer made sure the Blues were a shot away from leveling, and even grabbing a lead, which they did.

* Neighbours backed up his words -- On Friday, Neighbours -- who had a game-high six hits -- said it has to be a mindset for he and his teammates to get to the net. There were many areas in their game Thursday, a 5-0 loss against the Minnesota Wild, that the Blues did well. Net front at both ends was not one of them.

On his go-ahead goal -- and second of the game -- that gave the Blues a 3-2 lead, they won the face-off, worked it point to point, and Neighbours goes straight down the slot to get to the area that can disrupt a goalie's vision, and he got a stick on Colton Parayko's shot at 11:07:

All of it was predicated by the Blues' best 5-on-5 shift with sustained zone time and pressure. One of the first times in the game where the Blues were able to hold the zone and tire out Flames skaters that ultimately resulted in the face-off that led to the goal.

And on Suter's dagger goal at 13:33 to make it 4-2, Mathieu Joseph takes a big shot in front but clogs up the crease area, and Tyler Tucker, who was the subject of two tough goals against in this game, had to feel good redeeming himself with a slapper from the left point that was tipped home by Suter:

* Special teams were good -- Having to kill six minors is no easy task, and the Blues were 5-for-6, with the lone goal against being the 1-0 goal that Coronato shot in off Tucker, and the power play got off and running with Thomas' snipe that gave the Blues a 2-1 lead at 14:25. But how about this no-look pass by Jimmy Snuggerud? Pristine. It also came after associate coach Steve Ott, who coaches the power play units, flipped his two quarterbacks, Cam Fowler and Justin Faulk:

It came 1:44 after Thomas set up Neighbours' curl to the middle of the ice and backhand goal that came 12:41 into the second period and 92:41 into the season; Neighbours had just flipped with Snuggerud a couple shifts prior to scoring, with Neighbours moving onto a line with Thomas and Pavel Buchnevich:

Faulk (5:20), Philip Broberg (5:15) and Parayko (5:04) each had over five minutes on the penalty kill.

* Centers were good on the dots -- We mentioned that the PK was 5-fot-6 for the game, and a lot of that had to do with the centers doing a solid job winning draws and gaining possession.

Brayden Schenn was 13-5 (72 percent), Thomas was 12-10 (55 percent) and Suter was 7-6 (54 percent).

* 5 on 6 off to a good start -- We won't keep bringing up how putrid the Blues were in this situation last season, including Game 7 of their first-round playoff series against the Winnipeg Jets, but it's another area that they feel needs to be much better if they're to elevate their game, and when the Flames pulled goalie Dustin Wolf with just over 2:30 remaining, the Flames did not even get a shot on goal, and the Blues managed the puck well, putting it into good areas of the ice avoiding icing calls, and not spending time in their zone. 

It was well-executed for a first time managing it this season.

* Hear from coach Jim Montgomery, Neighbours and Hofer following the game: