David Perron had a goal and two assists, and Jordan Binnington had 31 saves to lead the St. Louis Blues to a 4-1 win over the visiting Colorado Avalanche on Monday.
The Blues (21-19-6, 48 points) recorded their second victory over Colorado in three days, following Saturday’s 5-3 win. Four points against a team ahead of them in the West Division is a major boost to the Blues’ fight for the fourth and final playoff spot.
The Avalanche (31-11-4, 66 points) lost consecutive games for just the third time all season.
Vladimir Tarasenko, Brayden Schenn and Robert Thomas scored the Blues’ other goals. Ryan O’Reilly followed up his four-point performance on Saturday with two assists.
Nathan MacKinnon extended his points streak to 14 games by scoring Colorado’s only goal, a power-play marker in the second period. MacKinnon is tied with the Carolina Hurricanes’ Dougie Hamilton for the longest points streak in the NHL this season.
Though the Avalanche outshot the Blues 32-20 in the game, Colorado didn’t get many quality scoring chances over the first two periods. It was a strong defensive performance for St. Louis, especially with blue-liners Colton Parayko and Vince Dunn out of the lineup with upper-body injuries.
Colorado increased the pressure in the third period, but Binnington looked sharp in stopping all 10 Avalanche shots in the final frame.
Tarasenko opened the scoring with a power-play goal 9:25 into the game, continuing the Blues’ recent success with the man advantage. The Blues have scored at least one power-play goal in seven consecutive games and are 8-for-21 overall on power plays during that stretch.
Perron recorded his third multi-point game of the season and ended a nine-game goal drought by tipping in a Justin Faulk point shot at 7:02 of the second period.
After MacKinnon scored to give the Avalanche some momentum midway through the game, Thomas restored the Blues’ three-goal lead with a delayed shot that beat Jonas Johansson.
Playing in his sixth game since being acquired in a trade from the Buffalo Sabres, Johansson stopped 16 of 20 shots.
–Field Level Media