Binnington wins again in second NHL start, Blues defeat Canadiens

ST. LOUIS --Jordan Binnington made 28 saves for his second win in as many NHL starts in the St. Louis Blues' 4-1 victory against the Montreal Canadiens at Enterprise Center on Thursday.

Oskar Sundqvist had a goal and an assist, Jay Bouwmeester, Robert Thomas and Sammy Blais scored, and Ryan O'Reilly had two assists for St. Louis (18-20-4).
Binnington became the 35th goalie in NHL history to win his first NHL start in a shutout when the 25-year-old made 25 saves in a 3-0 win at the Philadelphia Flyers on Monday.
WATCH: [All Canadiens vs. Blues highlights]
"I'm happy with that one," said Binnington, who has allowed one goal on 54 shots in the two starts. "It's my first start at home. I'm pretty excited about that. It was an exciting game, entertaining. We're happy with that outcome."
Brendan Gallagher scored and Carey Price made 26 saves for Montreal (23-17-5), which has lost three of its past four games after winning five of six.

"Basically, we gave it to them," Canadiens center Phillip Danault said. "We were flat-footed. We didn't use our speed, our strength and they capitalized more than we did.
"I don't think it's acceptable for our team because we're battling for a playoff spot, but we're going to look at it and it's tough to swallow that one."
Two of Binnington's biggest saves came off a 2-on-1 against Victor Mete with 16:17 remaining in the third period and another on Jonathan Drouin, who entered the Blues zone with speed and split the defensemen with 6:06 remaining.
"I got a piece of it and I felt it pop up," Binnington said of the save against Mete. "You kind of just hope for the best and hope the D-man was there to kind of block the goal line too. It was a fortunate play.
"I think I liked that Drouin save where he kind of came in past the D-man. I liked that one."
Thomas gave the Blues a 1-0 lead on a power-play goal 1:56 into the first, but left the game midway through the period because of an upper-body injury.
"I'll find out more tomorrow when he gets evaluated by doctors and stuff like that," Blues coach Craig Berube said of Thomas. "He's been really good for a while now. It's unfortunate. We hope that it's not too bad and he's OK."
Sundqvist's shorthanded goal at 16:24 of the first made it 2-0. It was the Blues' third shorthanded goal of the season.
"I don't know how I got the puck, but Carl [Gunnarsson] kind of swung it and it just ended up in my skates," Sundqvist said. "I saw right away that we were going to have a 2-on-1. Obviously, O'Reilly's a way better passer than me, so I was just trying to give it to him as quick as possible.
"I didn't think a lot. That was the first thing that came to my mind."
Bouwmeester's breakaway goal made it 3-0 at 6:04 of the second period.
Gallagher made it 3-1 with a power-play goal at 9:02 of the second to end Binnington's shutout streak at 105:24, a shot that caromed off Alex Pietrangelo's skate.
Blais scored his first of the season and second NHL goal at 9:19 of the third for the 4-1 final.

They said it

"Win one, lose one isn't good enough anymore. I think it's important to collect points every single night and to be in games. Tonight, it's disappointing because we really weren't in it at any point. We were playing from behind and we didn't have a strong enough push to get back in it and got the result we deserved." -- Canadiens forward Brendan Gallagher
"He's done great. The first couple games when he got thrown in, it's a tough situation, but the starts, he's been lights out. That's awesome." -- Blues defenseman Jay Bouwmeester on goalie Jordan Binnington

Need to know

Canadiens forward Nicolas Deslauriers played his 300th NHL game, and forward Joel Armia played his 200th. ... Canadiens defenseman Karl Alzner played his first game since Nov. 24. He was waived two days later. ... Blues forward David Perron extended his personal NHL-high point streak to nine games (four goals, eight assists). ... Blues defenseman Robert Bortuzzo played his 300th NHL game. ... O'Reilly has 10 points (three goals, seven assists) in his past eight games.

What's next

Canadiens: Host the Colorado Avalanche on Saturday (7 p.m. ET; SN, TVAS, ALT, NHL.TV)
Blues: At the Dallas Stars on Saturday (9 p.m. ET; FS-SW, FS-MW, NHL.TV)