St. Louis Blues surge past Montreal Canadiens 7-2

St. Louis Blues' Jake Neighbours (63) moves in to score Montreal Canadiens goaltender Jake Allen as Canadiens' David Savard (58) Joel Armia (40) and Kaiden Guhle defend during third period NHL hockey action in Montreal, Sunday, Feb. 11, 2024. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Graham Hughes

The St. Louis Blues celebrated Super Bowl Sunday by scoring a touchdown against the Montreal Canadiens.

Jordan Kyrou scored twice and Torey Krug produced five assists as the Blues handed the Canadiens a convincing 7-2 loss at Bell Centre.

"Pretty funny how that worked out," centre Robert Thomas said. "It's our second time this year getting seven, so it's always fun and everyone's always happy leaving the rink."

Thomas had a goal and three assists, while Jake Neighbours had a goal, an assist and a fight — also known as a “Gordie Howe hat trick.”

Colton Parayko, Alexey Toropchenko and Nathan Walker also scored for St. Louis (28-21-2), while Jordan Binnington made 30 saves.

The Blues have won seven of their last eight games, taking a two-point lead over Nashville for the final wild-card spot in the Western Conference.

"We're really coming together on the ice as a group,” Kyrou said. “We kind of just all got a little swagger going on."

Nick Suzuki and Joel Armia scored for Montreal (21-23-8), while Jake Allen stopped 29 shots.

The Canadiens lost their second in a row after a 3-2 loss to Dallas on Saturday and fell to 1-9-0 in the second game of back-to-backs this season.

“It’s never fun to get run out of the building, especially yours,” defenceman Jayden Struble said. “I thought there were a lot of bad bounces too that went against us but it’s not an excuse."

Krug said he can’t remember ever producing five assists in a game, be it in the NHL, college or minor hockey.

"It's a game that I'll remember,” he said. “I love playing in this building, it's my favourite building to play in the league."

St. Louis took the lead early and never looked back.

Just 25 seconds into the game, Toropchenko cruised around Struble down the right wing with a deke between his own legs before cutting to the net and beating Allen for a highlight-reel goal.

Parayko gave the visitors a 2-0 lead 5:05 into the first.

Seconds later, Blues forward Sammy Blais laid a hard hit on defenceman Jordan Harris while the latter was already falling along the end boards, appearing to connect near his head.

Harris also hit his head on the ice and couldn’t stand up after the incident, needing help to get off the ice. Blais received a five-minute major for boarding and a game misconduct.

The Canadiens got on the board just after the five-minute power play expired, when Juraj Slafkovsky set Suzuki up at 10:23. Montreal’s 5-on-4 advantage was extended a few seconds, however, as St. Louis didn’t have anyone in the penalty box to take out.

Blues head coach Drew Bannister explained he wanted to put someone in the box later in the penalty, but didn’t get a whistle.

"The guys were yelling to get a whistle, but I didn't know why,” Binnington said. “Then I found out that we didn't have a guy in the box. I've never seen that before."

Kyrou scored a power-play goal at 15:20 of the first. Walker added to the lead with 2:11 left in the second.

Thomas then scored a power-play goal just 31 seconds into the third to pour it on.

Armia got one back for Montreal at 3:06, but Neighbours potted yet another power-play marker at 7:14.

“We just gotta be more careful,” Suzuki said of Montreal’s penalties. “We can’t give that power play that many looks."

Kyrou made it 7-2 with a shot that ricocheted off the end boards and in off Allen, who had an afternoon to forget against his former team.

The Canadiens appeared to score with a minute left. However, Neighbours and Johnathan Kovacevic dropped the gloves at the same time the puck crossed the line. The officials ruled there would be no goal after review.

Insult to injury

The Canadiens announced that forward Rafael Harvey-Pinard is out four to six weeks.

Harvey-Pinard left Saturday’s game against the Dallas Stars after appearing to buckle his knee in a neutral-zone collision with Armia early in the second period.

Harris, meanwhile, is day-to-day with an upper-body injury.

Montreal defenceman Kaiden Guhle also appeared to hurt his left arm in the final minutes after a hit from Marco Scandella. The Canadiens said he was still being evaluated.

“Just scenario-wise, what was it, 6-2 at that point?" defenceman Mike Matheson said. "With a minute and some left, does this guy really need to drive him into the boards like that? I don’t know.”

This report by The Canadian Press was first published on Feb. 11, 2024.