Blues score 3 unanswered goals, defeat Avalanche

ST. LOUIS -- Brayden Schenn, Colton Parayko and Dylan Holloway scored in the second period, and the St. Louis Blues defeated the Colorado Avalanche 3-1 at Enterprise Center on Sunday.

Jordan Kyrou and Justin Faulk each had two assists for the Blues (26-26-6), who are 3-1-2 in their past six games. Jordan Binnington, who was playing for the first time since helping Canada win the 4 Nations Face-Off, made 28 saves.

“We were relentless, I thought, in our checking and offensively after the first period, I thought we were really hard offensively,” St. Louis coach Jim Montgomery said. “Not passing up shots, having people at the net front, driving the net. We tried a lot of low slot line plays, east-west plays, and I thought our D-men were really good.”

Devon Toews scored for the Avalanche (33-24-2), who were coming off a 2-1 loss to the Nashville Predators on Saturday. Mackenzie Blackwood made 22 saves.

“I liked our first 15 minutes, probably, and then it just disappeared," Colorado coach Jared Bednar said. "Both teams are in the same boat on the back-to-backs. It’s not an excuse. The three guys [Cale Makar, Nathan MacKinnon and Toews] that played in the [4 Nations] tournament, it looked like they were working as hard as they could, but they didn’t seem to have the pop that they had yesterday, which I think is understandable, which is why we kind of planned on giving them tomorrow and the next day off for those guys.

“All in all, we just didn’t have enough guys going. I don’t want to call it effort, but the competitiveness we needed to win that hockey game.”

Toews gave the Avalanche a 1-0 lead at 7:49 of the first period, tipping Makar’s wrist shot from the right point.

Makar earned his 400th NHL point on the play, making him the third-fastest defenseman in NHL history to reach the milestone (374 games). Only Bobby Orr (333) and Paul Coffey (359) did it in fewer games.

“We know as a group we have a lot better than this,” Makar said. “It’s just unfortunate when we can’t find the consistency. Obviously, played well last night but don’t find the goals. You’ve just got to get back to it and be better tonight. Unfortunately, we weren’t.”

Schenn tied it 1-1 at 10:45 of the second period after collecting Kyrou's rebound in the right circle. The goal came after Blackwood robbed the Blues captain from the slot earlier in the period.

Parayko put the Blues in front 2-1 at 14:13. He outmuscled Makar at the side of the net for a loose puck after Pavel Buchnevich threw a shot at the crease from the side boards.

Holloway made it 3-1 at 19:50 when he drove the net and redirected in Faulk’s centering pass from the right corner.

“In general, we were playing well,” Faulk said. “We thought we had a really good period. Obviously, that helps any time you get a late goal, there’s some momentum carryover. To be honest, it doesn’t usually last too long, maybe a shift or two, so you have to keep rolling it over and moving that way. But we were committed to it tonight. We kept it going in the third and didn’t give them much room.”

The Avalanche tried to push late, pulling Blackwood with 2:34 remaining, but Binnington rose to the occasion and stopped all 13 shots he faced in the third period.

“It was a little bit of an adjustment, wearing white pads, blue jersey, at this rink,” Binnington said. “Obviously, the last game I played was very, very intense and this game built and got more intense as it went along, but we came out and we got two big points, three big points on the weekend (after a 4-3 shootout loss to the Winnipeg Jets on Saturday). Our team played phenomenal. It’s a great start for us coming out of the break and it was fun to have the lead, win the game at home and have the crowd into it.”

NOTES: Blues forward Robert Thomas had an assist to extend his point streak to six games (three goals, six assists). … Faulk’s multipoint game was just his third in 54 games this season. … Buchnevich has five points (one goal, four assists) in a three-game point streak. … MacKinnon was held without a point for a second straight game, the second time it’s happened this season. … The Blues honored defenseman Ryan Suter on Sunday for playing in his 1,500th game on Feb. 8 against the Chicago Blackhawks.