Blues defeat Avalanche, gain in West playoff race

ST. LOUIS --David Perron had a goal and two assists for the St. Louis Blues in a 4-1 win against the Colorado Avalanche at Enterprise Center on Monday.

Ryan O'Reilly had two assists, and Jordan Binnington made 31 saves for the Blues (21-19-6), who won the final two of the three-game set and moved one point ahead of the Arizona Coyotes for fourth place in the Honda West Division. The top four teams will qualify for the Stanley Cup Playoffs.
"It's nice to bring results, but we've just got to keep pushing," Perron said. "I just like the way we played in the second period, to be honest. Obviously, the first as well, but we've been talking about it for a while now, and we finally got that second period that we wanted."
Nathan MacKinnon scored to extend his point streak to 14 games for the Avalanche (31-11-4), who have lost two in a row in regulation for the second time this season. Jonas Johansson made 16 saves.
Colorado, which went 5-3-0 against St. Louis this season, remained one point ahead of the Minnesota Wild for second in the West with one game in hand.
"We've got to be better than that for 60 minutes if we want to win at this time of year," Avalanche coach Jared Bednar said.
Vladimir Tarasenko scored a power-play goal from the top of the crease at 9:25 of the first period to give the Blues a 1-0 lead.
"I think he's a big body, he's got good hands around the net," St. Louis coach Craig Berube said. "For me, it's about him getting inside and being around the net a little bit more, and that's what's going to happen. He's a smart guy around there. He knows where to go and what to do and if you look at the League, you look at all the top power-play scorers in the League, they're at the net front or in the slot. There's a couple guys, (Alex) Ovechkin to name one, maybe another guy that's on the flank that are up and on top in scoring in the League, but guys that score goals on the power play are around the net."

Brayden Schenn made it 2-0 at 13:34 with a one-timer from the left face-off circle. It was his first goal since March 8 (20 games).
"I think overall as a team, our first period was [bad]," Avalanche captain Gabriel Landeskog said. "We were so bad in the first period. Pardon my language, but I don't know how else to explain it. We were so bad in every area of the game in the first period."
Perron deflected a point shot from Justin Faulk five-hole on Johansson to extend the lead to 3-0 at 7:02 of the second period. It was Perron's first goal since April 2 (10 games).

MacKinnon cut it to 3-1 at 8:24 on the power play. He has nine goals and 16 assists during his point streak, which is tied for the longest in the NHL this season with Carolina Hurricanes defenseman Dougie Hamilton.
Robert Thomas scored to make it 4-1 at 10:53 of the second. It was the forward's second game since returning from an upper-body injury.
"We threw a lot of emphasis into the second period tonight," Schenn said. "After the first intermission, we wiped the first period, put it behind us, and then worried about the second period. We got it going there in the second period and played the right way and put each other in good spots, set each other up with line changes and support, and it's fun playing that way."
NOTES: The Avalanche played without forwards Mikko Rantanen and Joonas Donskoi, who were removed from the NHL COVID-19 protocol list earlier Monday, and forward Brandon Saad, who is out 2-4 weeks with a lower-body injury. ... Colorado was limited to fewer than two goals for the first time since Feb. 22 (31 games). ... The Blues played without defensemen Colton Parayko and Vince Dunn, each out with an upper-body injury. ... Blues defenseman Steven Santini played his first NHL game since Nov. 21, 2019, with the Nashville Predators. He had two shots on goal and two hits in 5:55 of ice time. ... O'Reilly has 11 points (seven goals, four assists) in his past seven games.