Blues surge past Canadiens 7-2
Jordan Kyrou scored twice and Torey Krug had five assists and the St. Louis Blues earned a 7-2 victory at the Montreal Canadiens on Super Bowl Sunday.
Robert Thomas had a goal and three as sists, Jake Neighbours added a goal and one assist, while Colton Parayko, Alexey Toropchenko, and Nathan Walker also scored for St. Louis. Jordan Binnington made 30 saves for the Blues.
St. Louis has won seven of its past eight games.
“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, while Jake Allen stopped 29 shots. Suzuki extended his point streak to s- even games while linemate Cole Cau field’s streak of 11 games came to an end.
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 build ing, especially yours,” defenseman 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 get ting five assists in a game, be it in the NHL, college, or minor hockey.
The Blues went 3-for-5 on the power play. The Canadiens were 0-for-3.
St. Louis took the lead early and never looked back.
Just 25 seconds into the game, Toropch enko cruised around Struble down the right wing with a deke between his legs before cutting to the net and beating Allen for a highlight-reel goal.
Parayko gave the Blues a 2-0 lead 5:05 into the first period with a point shot off the post and into the net.
Seconds later, Blues forward Sammy Blais had a hard hit on defenseman Jordan Harris while the latter was already falling a- long the end boards, appearing to con nect 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. The Canadiens said he would not return because of an upper-body injury.
Blais, meanwhile, received a five-minute major for boarding and a game misconduct.
The Canadiens could not make the Blues pay until just after the five-minute power play expired when Juraj Slafko- vsky set Su zuki up with an open net after a cross-ice pass to cut the lead in half 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 coach Drew Bannister explained he wanted to put someone in the box later in the penalty, but didn’t get a whistle.
Kyrou scored a power-play goal at 15:20 of the first to give St. Louis a 3-1 lead heading into the break. Walker scored with 2:11 left in the period to put the Blues up by three.
Thomas added to that advantage with a power-play goal just 31 seconds into the third.
Armia got one back for Montreal at 3:06 with a deflection, but Neighbours regained the four-goal St. Louis lead with another power-play score at 7:14.
K yrou made it 7-2 with a shot that ricocheted off the end board and in off Allen.