Canadiens hand Blues fourth straight loss

ST. LOUIS --The Montreal Canadiens handed the St. Louis Blues their fourth straight loss, 5-2 at Enterprise Center on Saturday.

Shea Weber had a goal and an assist, and Jordan Weal, Brendan Gallagher, Jonathan Drouin and Nick Suzuki scored for the Canadiens (4-2-2), who won for the third time in their past four games. Carey Price made 32 saves and moved into 27th place on the NHL wins list with 325.
"It seems the older I get, the more it happens," Price said, "but I'm just thankful to have played with a lot of good teams that have helped me win those games."
WATCH: [All Canadiens vs. Blues highlights]
Jaden Schwartz and David Perron scored, and Jake Allen made 20 saves for the Blues (3-2-3), who are 0-2-2 in their past four games.
"It's all self-inflicted," Blues coach Craig Berube said. "It's not a buy-in right now, not enough of a buy-in to team play.
"The bottom line is they're all self-inflicted goals tonight. That's just how we look at it."
Weal, who replaced Joel Armia (lower body) in the lineup after he was injured in warmups, scored a power-play goal to give the Canadiens a 1-0 lead at 5:57 of the first period.

Schwartz tied it 1-1 with his first goal of the season at 7:08.
Gallagher scored six seconds into the second period to give the Canadiens a 2-1 lead. He beat Sammy Blais and Colton Parayko to a puck at the offensive-zone blue line and flipped a shot toward Allen that appeared to be going wide but hit the goalie's stick and went into the net.
"I'm going to take a lot of responsibility for that [game] on that goal," Allen said. "I think it took a lot of wind out of our sails. I thought we had a pretty decent first period ... That's on me for losing that momentum for the boys.
"It hit my stick and somehow hit my shaft and went the other way, but hey, there's no excuses."

Gallagher said, "I've been joking around, it's tough to score from there. A big second period for us. It's not easy to win in this building."
Canadiens coach Claude Julien said the goal had a positive impact on Montreal.
"I can't speak about the other team. All I know is it was a good start for us, six seconds in," Julien said. "We get the lead, and it just kind of gave us that kind of excitement of playing with the lead again. Those things happen. Happens to every team, and at the end of the day, if that happens to my team, I want them to bounce back and not let that affect them. It was nice to get that quick lead."
Drouin's power-play goal made it 3-1 at 3:39, giving him eight points (three goals, five assists) in his past eight games. Suzuki made it 4-1 at 11:33.

Perron got the Blues within 4-2 with 38 seconds left in the third and Allen pulled for an extra attacker, but Weber scored an empty-net goal with 23 seconds left for the 5-2 final.
Montreal swept the season series with St. Louis. The Canadiens defeated the Blues 6-3 on Oct. 12.
"That's huge for us," Drouin said. "They're Stanley Cup champs. They know how to play."

They said it

"We've had a few big games here. There were a few dips [Saturday] where we knew they were going to have momentum. That's what they do in this building. I thought we did a good job of obviously weathering it and coming back." -- Canadiens forward Brendan Gallagher
"It definitely happens, but we can't allow ... our team, veteran team, we've got to be better than that to let that affect us that much. We've got to be mentally tougher than that." -- Blues coach Craig Berube on how St. Louis played after the second Montreal goal

Need to know

Price needs five wins to catch Harry Lumley (330) for 26th place. ... Canadiens defenseman Cale Fleury (undisclosed) was a late scratch and is day to day. He was replaced by Christian Folin. ... Gallagher needs one point for 300 in the NHL. ... Blues defenseman Carl Gunnarsson (lower body) did not play and is day to day.

What's next

Canadiens:At the Minnesota Wild on Sunday (5 p.m. ET; ESPN+, FS-N, FS-WI, RDS, TSN2, NHL.TV)
Blues: Host the Colorado Avalanche on Monday (8 p.m. ET; ESPN+, FS-MW, ALT, NHL.TV)