Blues move up to third in Central

GLENDALE, Ariz. -- The St. Louis Blues moved into third place in the Central Division with a 3-1 win against the Arizona Coyotes at Gila River Arena on Monday.
Patrik Berglund, Vladimir Tarasenko and David Perron scored, and Carter Hutton made 22 saves for the Blues (42-28-6), who lead the Nashville Predators by one point for third in the Central. Each team has six games remaining.
"We want to make the playoffs, but more importantly we want to make sure we're a good team going in," said Mike Yeo, who is 18-7-1 since taking over for Ken Hitchcock as Blues coach Feb. 1. "We got the win, but there are areas that we have to be better at going into the next game."

WATCH: All Blues vs. Coyotes highlights
St. Louis has won six of seven games and is 11-1-1 in its past 13, allowing 19 goals over that span. The Blues allowed two goals in sweeping three games from the Coyotes in the past 12 days to increase their winning streak against Arizona to 11 and point streak to 15 (14-0-1).
"When we played 5-on-5 hockey, I thought we dominated pretty well," said Hutton, who has allowed two goals in his past two starts. "They had some looks. They are a good team. It was similar to what I saw the last two games with them (when Jake Allen was in goal for St. Louis). You know they will get their chances, and it was a matter of being ready."
Hutton has seven of his 12 wins and all four of his shutouts on the road.
"We keep throwing him out there on the road and he was really good again," Yeo said. "He had a few sneaky, strong saves tonight if you go back and watch the tape … traffic in front of the net and he reaches up and picks up a shot that is labeled for the corner. His puck poise and execution helping our [defense] get out of the zone was real strong too."

Alex Goligoski scored a power-play goal, and Louis Domingue made 40 saves for the Coyotes (27-41-9), who have lost four straight games and seven of eight (1-6-1).
"The past five or six games have been strong. Really good," Arizona coach Dave Tippett said of Domingue, who had won four straight starts. "Just a solid work ethic, stopping the ones that he's supposed to."
Coyotes forward Clayton Keller earned his first NHL point with an assist on Goligoski's goal.
"It was good to play the first game here, but I don't think we got the start we wanted," said Keller, a Chesterfield, Missouri, native who made his NHL debut in a 4-1 loss in St. Louis on Monday. "Louis stood on his head and really kept us in that one. It would have been nicer to get the win."
Berglund gave the Blues a 1-0 lead at 9:16 of the first period, taking a Magnus Paajarvi pass and shooting over Domingue for his 22nd goal, tying his NHL career high.
Tarasenko scored his eighth goal in the past 12 games at 2:25 of the second, putting in the rebound of a Jay Bouwmeester shot to make it 2-0.
Goligoski got the Coyotes within 2-1 when he scored at 14:37 of the third, 1:26 after Paajarvi was called for high sticking against him.
Perron scored into an empty net with 19.8 seconds left to make it 3-1.

Goal of the game

Tarasenko found just enough room under Domingue's arm from the bottom of the left faceoff circle to put the Blues ahead by two with his 36th goal, fourth-most in the NHL.

Save of the game

Hutton got his left pad on Tobias Rieder's low shot on a breakaway at 3:09 of the third period.

Unsung performance of the game

Blues forward Ryan Reaves had two shots on goal, four hits and three blocked shots in 10:53.

Highlight of the game

Domingue tried to dash to the near post for a sprawling save, but Berglund's perfectly placed wrist shot caught a piece of the crossbar on its way in to give St. Louis an early lead.

They said it

"I felt their goalie had a [heck] of a game. That should not have been a 3-1 game with an empty-netter, but he was pretty good."-- Blues goalie Carter Hutton on Coyotes goalie Louis Domingue
"He's a real smart young player. He's real keen on what he wants to do. But that's a big, strong team, and there's going to be some growing pains." -- Coyotes coach Dave Tippett on the first two games of Clayton Keller's NHL career, each against the Blues

Need to know

St. Louis has won nine straight games in Arizona, with its last loss coming March 22, 2011.

What's next

Blues:At the Colorado Avalanche on Friday (9 p.m. ET; ALT, FS-MW, NHL.TV)
Coyotes:Host the Washington Capitals on Friday (10 p.m. ET; FS-A, CSN-DC+, NHL.TV)