ice hockey

Kucherov, Lightning shutout Canadiens 3-0

DENVER, Feb 17, (AP): Jake Allen made 32 saves, Vladimir Tarasenko and Zach Sanford scored 57 seconds apart in the third period and the St Louis Blues beat the Colorado Avalanche 3-0 on Saturday for their ninth straight victory.

The winning streak is St Louis’ longest since also winning nine in a row from Oct 15-Nov 5, 2002.

Allen has two shutouts this season and 18 overall. St Louis hasn’t allowed a goal in 127 minutes, 14 seconds.

The Blues outshot Colorado 2519 through the first two periods, but couldn’t get one past Semyon Varlamov until Tarasenko broke through with his 25th goal at 4:01 of the third.

After Colorado nearly scored at the other end, Sanford scored on an ensuing odd-man rush, tipping Oskar Sundqvist’s pass past Varlamov at 4:58 for his seventh of the season. Tarasenko also assisted on the goal.

Jaden Schwartz added an empty-net goal.

Lightning 3, Canadiens 0 In Tampa, Florida, Nikita Kucherov had a goal and an assist in the third period and Tampa Bay beat Montreal for

Colorado Avalanche goaltender Semyon Varlamov, back, looks to block a redirected shot off the stick of St. LouisBlues center Ryan O’Reilly in the first period of an NHL hockey game on Feb 16, in Denver. (AP)