Canadiens defeat Blues on late Gallagher goal

MONTREAL -- Brendan Gallagher scored with 11 seconds remaining in the third period to give the Montreal Canadiens a 3-2 win against the St. Louis Blues at Bell Centre on Wednesday.

Gallagher tipped Tomas Tatar's shot past Jake Allen after Blues defenseman Colton Parayko fanned on a pass and turned over the puck in front of the net to give Montreal (4-1-1) its third straight win.
"Winning is fun, and I think what's enjoyable about it right now is everyone is coming to the rink and they feel they've got an important role," Gallagher said. "Whatever you do on this team you're going to be put on the ice in key situations, important minutes, and for us right now I think everyone feels that responsibility to do the job and it's just a fun atmosphere to be around."
WATCH: [All Blues vs. Canadiens highlights]
Max Domi and Mike Reilly each scored their first goal for the Canadiens, and Carey Price made 23 saves.

It was Price's 288th NHL win, one behind Patrick Roy for second place among Canadiens goalies. Jacques Plante won 314 games for Montreal from 1952-63.
Brayden Schenn tied it at 2-2 with 3:29 remaining in the third period on St. Louis' second power-play goal of the game.
Alexander Steen extended his point streak to four games with an assist on Schenn's goal.
The Blues (1-3-2) have scored power-play goals in five straight games. They have nine power-play goals in that span, including Vince Dunn's goal at 3:21 of the second that tied it at 1-1.

"At the end of the day it's about winning hockey games, it's not about scoring on the power play," Schenn said. "And we've got to get back to the little details of our game and just being better in all three zones, taking care of the puck. Little things like that win you hockey games and we're just not doing that right now."
Reilly's power-play goal at 7:42 of the second gave the Canadiens a 2-1 lead. It was the first goal by a Montreal defenseman this season.
With Blues forward Vladimir Tarasenko in pursuit, Domi broke in on a 2-on-1 with Jonathan Drouin and put a backhand shot under Allen's right pad to give the Canadiens a 1-0 lead 39 seconds into the first period.

"When you're going at that speed and then you've got pressure, a guy like Tarasenko, I mean, he knows what I'm trying to do as an offensive guy," Domi said. "Whether I was trying to get it over or trying to get it to the net, he played that pretty well, so I just figured it was early in the game and I just shoveled it to the net, and I'll take some luck, for sure."

They said it

"I don't see enough anger. I don't see enough where we're going to put our foot down and we're going to put an end to this. And you can get caught up in winning and losing, that's fine. You know what? Play 60 minutes of hockey and I think you're going to like the result." -- Blues coach Mike Yeo
"Well, this was our goal, obviously, to come out and have a good start, and we've accomplished that. And now we've just got to keep working on our game and keep striving to get better." -- Canadiens goalie Carey Price

Need to know

Blues forward Tyler Bozak played his 600th NHL game. … Allen, who made 20 saves, had won his past three starts against the Canadiens. … Montreal had lost five straight against St. Louis (0-3-2). … Canadiens defenseman Karl Alzner played 17:23 and was plus-1 in his season debut. He was a healthy scratch for Montreal's first five games, ending the NHL's 12th-longest consecutive games played streak at 622.

What's next

Blues: At the Toronto Maple Leafs on Saturday (7 p.m. ET; NHLN, CBC, SN1, FS-MW, NHL.TV)
Canadiens: At the Ottawa Senators on Saturday (7 p.m. ET; CITY, TVAS, NHL.TV)