In St Louis, the Blues’ Jordan Binnington made 30 saves in a 4-1 win over the Colorado Avalanche on Monday night.
The Blues moved back into the fourth playoff spot in the West, one point ahead of the Arizona Coyotes.
Nathan MacKinnon scored the Avs’ only goal of the game.
“We’ve got to be better than that for 60 minutes if we want to win at this time of year,” Avalanche head coach Jared Bednar said.
St Louis took a 2-0 lead in the first period off goals from Vladimir Tarasenko and Brayden Schenn.
“I think he’s a big body, he’s got good hands around the net,” St. Louis head coach Craig Berube said. “For me, it’s about him getting inside and being around the net a little bit more, and that’s what’s going to happen. He’s a smart guy around there. He knows where to go and what to do and if you look at the League, you look at all the top power-play scorers in the League, they’re at the net front or in the slot. There’s a couple guys, (Alex) Ovechkin to name one, maybe another guy that’s on the flank that are up and on top in scoring in the League, but guys that score goals on the power play are around the net.”
David Perron extended the lead to 3-0 in the middle frame.
“It’s nice to bring results, but we’ve just got to keep pushing,” Perron said. “I just like the way we played in the second period to be honest. Obviously, the first as well, but we’ve been talking about it for a while now, and we finally got that second period that we wanted.”
MacKinnon cut the lead to 3-1 at 8:24 of the second period.
“I think overall as a team, our first period was [bad],” the Avs’Â Gabriel Landeskog said. “We were so bad in the first period. Pardon my language, but I don’t know how else to explain it. We were so bad in every area of the game in the first period.”
St Louis replied with a goal from Robert Thomas just past the midway point of the second for the 4-1 final score.
“We threw a lot of emphasis into the second period tonight,” the Blues’ Brayden Schenn said. “After the first intermission, we wiped the first period, put it behind us and then worried about the second period. We got it going there in the second period and played the right way and put each other in good spots, set each other up with line changes and support and it’s fun playing that way.”
Jonas Johansson made 16 saves in the loss.
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