BLUES For the second straight game, the Blues had built up a two-goal lead. And for the second straight game, they lost it.
Vancouver's J.T. Miller and Bo Horvat scored to erase the 3-1 deficit, and Josh Leivo scored the only goal in a six-round shootout to escape St. Louis with a 4-3 win on Thursday night.
"It's a staple of our game for years here, right, is closing out leads," Blues captain Alex Pietrangelo said. "We've just got to find a way to keep playing the same way. A couple weird bounces the last couple games, not an excuse, but I think we can still do a better job of closing teams out and keeping things 5-on-5, but there's a lot of things we can build off of here, and once you start closing out games, we're going to be pushing things in the right direction."
The Blues have at least one point in six of seven games this season but have lost three straight entering Saturday's matchup with Montreal.
CANADIENS A 17-save shutout for Carey Price gave him his first of the season and 45th of his NHL career Thursday and lifted the Canadiens to a 4-0 win against Minnesota.
"We all knew that we could play better defensively," Price said. "And I thought tonight we were reloading and getting in the shot lanes and doing all the right things."
Victor Mete, Joel Armia, Nick Suzuki and Brendan Gallagher chipped in goals for Montreal, who improved to 3-2-2 on the season.
HEAD-TO-HEAD The Blues and Canadiens will wrap up their season series with Saturday's meeting. The teams met last Saturday in Montreal, where the Canadiens took a 6-3 win.
"We have to come out and have more energy than we had in Montreal," Blues Head Coach Craig Berube said. "We played a soft game against Montreal, so with a team like that with speed, we've got to make sure that we're physical."
The Blues are 6-2-0 in their last eight games against the Canadiens and have won four straight at Enterprise Center, outscoring Montreal 14-7 in that span.
