Blues Special Teams Dominate Canadiens | RECAP: STL @ MTL

Forwards

22 Cole Caufield - 14 Nick Suzuki - 20 Juraj Slafkovsky
70 Tanner Pearson - 71 Jake Evans - 17 Josh Anderson
89 Joshua Roy - 15 Alex Newhook - 40 Joel Armia
55 Michael Pezzetta - 74 Brandon Gignac - 56 Jesse Ylonen

Defensemen
8 Mike Matheson - 21 Kaiden Guhle
47 Jayden Struble - 58 David Savard
54 Jordan Harris - 26 Johnathan Kovacevic

Goaltenders

Starter: 34 Jake Allen 
Alternate: 35 Sam Montembeault

Out of the lineup

Scratches: Arber Xhekaj, Cayden Primeau

Suspension: Brendan Gallagher

Injuries: Carey Price (knee), Chris Wideman (back), Kirby Dach (knee), Christian Dvorak (upper body), Rafael Harvey-Pinard (lower body)

One thing is very clear: the Canadiens consistently play poorly in the second half of a back-to-back. Montreal has won just once in ten tries this season when playing on the second day of games on consecutive days.

The Canadiens were not ready to play from the drop of the puck. Alexey Toropchenko cruised around Jayden Struble to open the scoring just 25 seconds into the contest. Less than five minutes later, Colton Parayko out the Blues up by two goals with Brayden Schenn providing a screen.

Montreal was gifted an opportunity to get back into the game with a five-minute power play. They managed just two shots on goal in five minutes. But with the Blues failing to put a player in the penalty box, the 5-on-4 advantage continued, as Nick Suzuki scored his 17th goal of the season.

With an assist, Juraj Slafkovsky extended his point streak to five games. The other member of the top line, Cole Caufield, saw his points streak end at 11 games.

The Canadiens received a five-minute advantage as Sammy Blais was ejected for boarding. Jordan Harris awkwardly fell into the glass behind the Canadiens net with the back of his head hitting the ice. Harris was helped to the dressing room and did not return to the game.

It was a penalty-filled affair with a total of 67 minutes between the two teams. St. Louis feasted on a weak Canadiens penalty kill converting three of five opportunities. Montreal was 0-for-4 with the man advantage.

It was a difficult game for most of the Canadiens skaters. Rookie defenseman Jayden Struble was culpable on the Blues first goal and was in the box for their third goal. Josh Anderson had a minus-4 rating.

Canadiens (21-23-8)
Shots: 32
Face-off %: 54.0
Power play: 0/4
Penalty minutes: 29
Hits: 20
Blocks:9

Blues (28-21-2)
Shots: 36
Face-off %: 46.0
Power play: 3/5
Penalty minutes: 38
Hits: 11
Blocks: 17

Canadiens Scorers
1st period: Suzuki (17)
2nd period: --
3rd period: Armia (9)
OT: --
SO: --

Blues Scorers
1st period: Toropchenko (8), Schenn (14), Kyrou (16)-PPG
2nd period: Walker (4)
3rd period: Thomas (18)-PPG, Neighbours (18)-PPG, Kyrou (17)
OT: --
SO: --

Goaltenders
MTL: Allen (L) 5-10-3
STL: Binnington (W) 18-13-2

Joel Armia - Armia scored his ninth goal of the season and led Canadiens forwards with four shots on goal and co-led the team with three hits.

Martin St. Louis

"Sometimes you forget how young [the defensemen] are especially at that position. It's a hard position to play in this league at a young age. They're going to have tough shifts, they're going to have bad games, but it's very promising what we have in that department."

Jayden Struble

"I tried to play hard, make the simple plays and get back into it somehow (after the mistake on the opening shift.) Then I took a penalty, that didn't help. They scored two seconds in (to the power play.) Tough one for me, for sure."

Following the game, the Canadiens announced that Kaiden Guhle's injury was being evaluated, Jordan Harris' status is day-to-day and that Rafael Harvey-Pinard will be out four to six weeks.
Montreal will host the Anaheim Ducks at the Bell Centre on Tuesday.

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