Carter Hutton made 33 saves and Ivan Barbashev broke a scoreless tie in the second period to help the St. Louis Blues beat the Montreal Canadiens 3-1 on Tuesday night.
St. Louis, which beat Montreal for the fifth successive time, has won five of six overall. The struggling Canadiens have lost 11 of 15.
Patrik Berglund pushed the lead to 2-0 with a power-play goal early in the third. Alexander Steen added an empty-netter with 2:17 left.
Charles Hudon ended Hutton's shutout bid by scoring a 6-on-4 goal with 1:07 remaining.
Hutton has started the Blues' last six games and appears to have supplanted Jake Allen as their No. 1 netminder. A 32-year-old journeyman, Hutton improved to 13-4-1. He has stopped 94 of his past 96 shots and is 8-1-1 in his last 10 starts.
Barbashev, who spent 21 games in the minors this season, whipped a wrist shot past goalie Carey Price from the top of the faceoff circle at 4:38 of the second.
Berglund scored his seventh of the season on the rebound of a shot by Tage Thompson. The Blues had come up empty on their previous 34 power-play attempts against the Canadiens dating back to Jan. 20, 2010.
Montreal is 2-4-2 in its last eight games and remains 10 points out of a playoff spot in the Eastern Conference.
