St. Louis, MO (SportsNetwork.com) - Alexander Steen lit the lamp twice and
T.J. Oshie had two assists as the St. Louis Blues cruised past the Montreal
Canadiens, 5-1, at Scottrade Center.
Jaden Schwartz, Chris Stewart, and Maxim Lapierre all scored for the Blues and
Brenden Morrow tallied his 300th assist to help the Blues snap a two-game
losing streak.
Jaroslav Halak stopped 25-of-26 shots in the victory.
Brendan Gallagher supplied Montreal's lone goal and Carey Price allowed all
five goals for the Canadiens, who have lost two of their last three.
"We're making simple mistakes that we shouldn't be making," said Montreal
winger Brian Gionta. "We're not supporting each other. We're not backing each
other up and ... that's just not the way we need to be playing."
The Blues started the scoring 4:20 into the first. Oshie rushed up the left
wing and dished a pass to Steen over towards the right of Price. Steen reached
to gather the puck and lifted a shot past a sliding Price for a shorthanded
marker.
Steen tallied his 24th goal of the season almost four minutes later. Derek Roy
carried the puck into the Montreal zone and dropped a pass back to Steen at
the right circle. Steen quickly wristed the puck over the shoulder of Price
for his second of the night.
"We stuck with it and just played the way we should be playing, the way we
were playing early in the season," said Steen.
The Blues went up by three at 13:33 in the first. Morrow dished a pass from
behind the net and into the slot for Stewart, who snapped the puck into the
net.
Gallagher knocked a rebound out of the air to get Montreal on the board 12:51
into the second.
Schwartz fired a shot through the arm of Price to give the Blues a 4-1 lead
12:21 into the third.
The Blues made it 5-1 with 2:27 remaining. Douglas Murray sent an inerrant
pass through the slot and Lapierre slapped the puck into the back of the net
to account for the final score.
Game Notes
The Blues are now 20-1-2 when scoring first ... St. Louis went 0-for-6 on the
power play despite scoring five goals ... The Blues have won their last five
games against the Canadiens ... Montreal plays in Nashville on Saturday, while
St. Louis travels to Edmonton on Saturday.