Kyrou scores twice, Krug has 5 assists as Blues surge past Canadiens 7-2
Sun, Feb 11, 2024
NHL News (AP)
MONTREAL (AP) - 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 assists, 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.
Nick Suzuki and Joel Armia scored for Montreal, while Jake Allen stopped 29 shots. Suzuki extended his point streak to seven games while linemate Cole Caufield'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.
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, Toropchenko cruised around Jayden 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 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. 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 were unable to make the Blues pay until just after the five-minute power play expired, when Juraj Slafkovsky set Suzuki up with an open net after a cross-ice pass to cut the lead in half at 10:23.
Kyrou scored a power-play goal at 15:20 of the first to give St. Louis a 3-1 lead heading into the break.
Despite an evenly matched second, 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 yet another power-play score at 7:14.
Kyrou made it 7-2 with a shot that ricocheted off the end board and in off Allen.
LINEUP CHANGES
Forward Joshua Roy, recalled from American Hockey League affiliate Laval, entered the Canadiens lineup for Rafael Harvey-Pinard, who left Saturday's game with a lower-body injury and was placed on injured reserve Sunday.
Harris replaced Arber Xhekaj on the blue line after spending two games as a healthy scratch before leaving the game.
UP NEXT
Blues: at Toronto on Tuesday.
Canadiens: host Anaheim on Tuesday.
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AP NHL: https://apnews.com/hub/nhl
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