ST. LOUIS — The Blues played a terrible first period Saturday. Their third-period start was pretty bad too.

But they used a second-period rally and a strong finish to edge the Carolina Hurricanes 4-3 at Enterprise Center.

Mathieu Joseph, Jake Neighbours, Dylan Holloway and Kasperi Kapanen scored for the Blues, who are 2-1 on this four-game homestand.

Making his second straight start in goal, Joel Hofer made 37 saves and allowed the Blues to survive their rocky start.

There was no mystery about what the Blues would face. Under coach Rod Brind’Amour, the Hurricanes have a well-established identity. They play the same way week after week, month after month, season after season.

“We’re going to have to be physical, we’re going to have to be strong along the walls,” Blues coach Drew Bannister said beforehand. “We’re going to have to be good in the net front, we’re going to have to get into shooting lanes, we’re going to have to win races to pucks here tonight ... We have to be willing to skate and we have to use that ability to skate to match their intensity and their physicality.”

It took a while for that message to sink in.

Blues suffer sluggish start

The Hurricanes defeated the Penguins 4-1 at Pittsburgh Friday, then they didn’t arrive in St. Louis until the wee hours overnight.

The Blues hoped to take advantage of their fresher legs. Bannister staged an optional practice Friday and gave key Blues extra rest ahead of this game.

“The first period is very important for us to really use our ability to skate,” Bannister said. “We’re going to have to get on bodies and slow them down. We’re going to have to find ways to slow them down through the neutral zone.”

That did not happen.

Carolina built a 5-1 shots advantage in the first 3 1/2 minutes and outshot the Blues 19-4 over the first 20 minutes. The Hurricanes built a 32-7 advantage in shot attempts and limited the Blues to 2:22 in offensive zone time.

Carolina took a 1-0 lead 1:21 into the game when Seth Jarvis picked Colton Parayko’s pocket in left corner and moved the puck to Sebastian Aho, who slid it over to Andrei Svechnikov for an easy goal on the weak side.

Blues spring to life

The Blues stabilized in the second period by drawing two penalties. They didn’t covert their power plays, but they finally got offensive zone time.

Then their forecheck went to work. Brayden Schenn’s line led the charge, with Mathieu Joseph scoring with a turnaround shot from the slot.

Zack Bolduc stole the puck along the right boards and set up Neighbours’ laser shot for a 2-1 lead.

The offer sheet boys struck next. Philip Broberg zig-zagged toward the goal from the left wing and slipped the puck to Holloway breaking to the goal.

In the first period Holloway lost control of the puck on a clean break-in, but this time he scored to give the Blues a 3-1 lead. He batted his rebound in out of the air for his first goal with his new team.

Broberg, meanwhile, has started his Blues career with a six-game point streak.

Carolina pushes back

Parayko made a save with Hofer caught out of the goal early in the third period, but he shot the puck over the boards. On the ensuing Carolina power play, Shayne Gostisbehere scored from the blue line.

After Nathan Walker turned the puck over coming out of this zone, the Hurricanes tied the game 3-3 with Jack Roslovic's shot off the right wing.

But Kapanen answered with a clean break-in, converting Neighbours' pass to put the Blues up 4-3.

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