MONTREAL (AP) – The Montreal Canadiens are leaving teams behind — and trying not to get too far ahead of themselves.
Brendan Gallagher scored with 11 seconds left to give the Montreal Canadiens their third straight victory, 3-2 over the St. Louis Blues on Wednesday night.
“I’m not proud of anything because it’s only six games,” coach Claude Julien said. “I’m glad with the way things are going but there’s no reason to get carried away with where we are right now. There’s still lots to accomplish. I could be proud of a lot of things, but I prefer being humble in these situations where things can change quickly.”
Max Domi and Mike Reilly each scored their first goal of the season to help Montreal improve to 4-1-1. Carey Price made 23 saves for his second victory of the season after missing two games because of the flu.
Gallagher tipped a loose puck past goalie Jake Allen after jumping on a bad giveaway by defenseman Colton Parayko in front of the net.
“You obviously don’t expect it,” Gallagher said. “You have to be in the right spot. I thought Tuna (Tatar) did a good job to create the turnover and fortunately enough it ended up where I didn’t do that much. I just had to chip it in.”
From the corner of the ice, Parayko whiffed on a pass and the puck went right to Tomas Tatar, who poked it to Gallagher at the side of the net.
Vince Dunn and Brayden Schenn scored for St. Louis, and Allen made 20 saves. The Blues dropped to 1-3-2.
Just 39 seconds into the game, Domi put the home team in front with his first goal in a Canadiens uniform. On a 2-on-1 with Jonathan Drouin, Domi carried the puck from his own blue line before beating Allen with a backhand between the pads.
Dunn tied it at 3:21 of the second period when his shot from the point beat Price through traffic.
Reilly showed fancy stick work at the blue line to evade Brayden Schenn’s poke check before firing a wrist shot glove side past Allen on the power play at 7:42 of the second to give Montreal the 2-1 lead.
The Canadiens gave St. Louis three power plays in the third period and the visitors capitalized on the last one. With Matthew Peca in the box for holding, Schenn beat Price with 3:29 left in the game.
NOTES: The victory was Montreal’s first against the Blues since Oct. 20, 2015. The Canadiens were 0-3-2 in their last five versus St. Louis. … Canadiens forward Andrew Shaw is out with flu. … Blues center Tyler Bozak played his 600th NHL game.
UP NEXT
Blues: At Toronto on Saturday night.
Canadiens: At Ottawa on Saturday night.
Photo credit – Graham Hughes / The Canadian Press via AP / Montreal, Quebec
