Blues’ 10th straight win is third straight shutout

The NHL’S hottest team keeps winning — with a rookie goaltender helping to make history along the way.

Jordan Binnington made 31 saves as the St. Louis Blues posted their third straight shutout, beating the Minnesota Wild 4-0 on Sunday for their 10th straight win.

Binnington made 21 saves to blank Arizona on Thursday, and Jake Allen stopped 32 shots in a 3-0 win over Colorado on Saturday. St. Louis hasn’t allowed a goal in 187:16.

“It’s all good stuff,” Blues interim coach Craig Berube said. “Players are doing a great job; they’re going out and executing every night and playing hard and doing the right things.”

Vladimir Tarasenko had a goal and two assists, and Ryan O’reilly, Vince Dunn and Brayden Schenn also scored to help St. Louis match the best win streak in franchise history, completed in January

2002.

The run also ties the Blues for the longest NHL streak this season. St. Louis has won eight straight on the road, its best such run since taking 10 straight in 2000.

Alex Stalock stopped 26 shots for Minnesota in his first action since Feb. 2.

Binnington improved to 12-11, with four road shutouts, since making his first NHL start on Jan. 7.

“Everyone’s happy as a team for that, and it just shows how good we’re playing as a team,” Binnington said. “It’s fun to be a Blues fan now.”

The Wild, who were 0-for-5 on the power play, are 1-5-3 in their past nine games and heard boos from the home crowd Sunday.

A wide-open Tarasenko scored the first goal 5:08 into the first period. The power-play tally extended Tarasenko’s career-high points streak to 12 games. He has 11 goals and 11 assists during the run.

Tarasenko also had an assist, his 400th point, on O’reilly’s goal later in the first that made it 2-0.

Tarasenko later assisted on Schenn’s second-period goal that put St. Louis up 4-0. Schenn fired the puck off Wild defenseman Nick Seeler, who slid into the net and took the puck with him.

At Anaheim, Calif., Adam Henrique and Jakob Silfverberg each scored twice to back Ryan Miller, who had 23 saves while passing John Vanbiesbrouck for the most wins among U.s.-born goalies with 375, as Anaheim won for the fourth time in its past 24 games. Alex Ovechkin scored his 40th goal for Washington, becoming the fourth NHL player with 10 40-goal seasons. At Pittsburgh, Evgeni Malkin and Kris Letang each had two goals and Sidney Crosby three assists for Pittsburgh, which passed Carolina for the East’s second wild-card spot. Mats Zuccarello scored twice for New York.

At Sunrise, Fla., Aleksander Barkov had three goals and an assist in his second hat trick, reaching the 20goal mark for the fourth straight season. Max Domi scored twice for Montreal.

At Newark, N.J., Kyle Palmieri had a goal and two assists to back Cory Schneider, who had 34 saves, as New Jersey posted a second straight win for the second time in 2019.

At Detroit, Oskar Lindblom scored twice to back rookie Carter

Hart, who stopped 37 shots, as Philadelphia won for the 12th time in 14 games.

The Associated Press