Broberg, Thomas each has 4 points, Blues top Canadiens for 7th win in row

ST. LOUIS -- Robert Thomas and Philip Broberg each had a goal and three assists, and the St. Louis Blues extended their season-high winning streak to seven games with a 6-1 victory against the Montreal Canadiens at Enterprise Center on Tuesday.

St. Louis matched its longest winning streak since Oct. 10-21, 2022.

“It starts with the belief in this group, just believe in the process and each other,” Broberg said. “I think it also starts with a lot of hard work. I'm just happy we got the win. I thought we played great today as a team, so very happy with the game today.”

Dylan Holloway had a goal and an assist for the Blues (38-28-7), who improved to 14-2-2 in their past 18 games. Jordan Binnington made 24 saves to win his fourth straight start.

St. Louis pulled to within two points of the Minnesota Wild, who have one game in hand, for the first wild card into the Stanley Cup Playoffs from the Western Conference. It also remained four points ahead of the Calgary Flames, who won 4-3 in overtime against the Seattle Kraken on Tuesday, for the second wild card. Calgary has three games in hand.

“I don’t think that we’ve looked at it that way,” Blues coach Jim Montgomery said of the standings. “I think we’ve just looked at controlling our own games. I have not had a conversation with a player about Calgary, about Minnesota, about Vancouver, about Utah. I’m sure they’re talking amongst themselves like us coaches talk amongst ourselves, but when we’re all together, it’s been real business-like about the present.”

Nick Suzuki scored for the Canadiens (33-28-9), who had their point streak end at six games (3-0-3). Sam Montembeault allowed five goals on 32 shots before being replaced by Jakub Dobes at 10:12 of the third period. Dobes made four saves on five shots.

“To me at this time of the year, I feel like … I heard this saying the other day: it’s not failure tonight, to me, it’s fertilizer,” Montreal coach Martin St. Louis said. “That’s the way it needs to be.

“We didn’t make it easy on ourselves tonight. I didn’t like how many pucks Binnington got to touch. Our forecheck was not as good as in the past. I think it’s something that we’ve fueled off of, and we didn’t have much of that.”

Montreal remained one point ahead of the New York Islanders and New York Rangers for the second wild card from the Eastern Conference.

“I’d say it’s all on us probably,” Suzuki said. “Probably our worst game in a while. I don’t know, we just have to be a lot better than that with how important these games are.”

Jordan Kyrou gave St. Louis a 1-0 lead at 18:07 of the first period when he found a lane in the high slot and beat Montembeault through traffic despite the Canadiens goalie getting a piece of the shot.

Suzuki tied it 1-1 at 18:54, tipping Lane Hutson’s shot from the blue line after a Blues turnover.

Holloway put St. Louis back ahead 2-1 at 19:54 after deflecting Broberg’s shot from the left point.

“You hate to give up a goal with four seconds or whatever it was,” Suzuki said. “It’s definitely a momentum killer, especially when we tie it. If we go into the room 1-1 feeling a little bit better, but they were moving a lot through the neutral zone, we were missing guys. Their transition game killed us. It was mostly our lack of execution of how we played the game.”

Thomas extended it to 3-1 at 3:21 of the second period during a 4-on-4. He entered the zone with speed, pulled up at the top of the left circle and beat Montembeault with a high wrist shot.

Alexandre Texier pushed it to 4-1 at 9:09, scoring on a loose rebound of Cam Fowler’s high slot shot.

Broberg made it 5-1 at 10:12 of the third period with a wrist shot from the left circle off the glove of Montembeault, who was then replaced by Dobes.

Zack Bolduc scored a power-play goal at 18:02 for the 6-1 final.

“We're playing really confident right now,” Holloway said. “I think we've got a recipe that works and a game plan that everybody believes in. Guys are playing for each other, and it's a good vibe in here for sure.

“I think that's just a testament to our work ethic. I think guys are putting the work in on the ice, off the ice, in the gym. We're dialed in in practice, too. And the biggest thing is, we're just working smart in those games. We're getting pucks to the goal line, we're playing to our team identity and good results have been happening."

NOTES: The Blues have outscored their opponents 34-10 during their winning streak and have won eight straight at home. … Montreal lost in regulation for just the second time in its past 14 games (8-2-4). … Holloway extended his point streak to eight games (four goals, nine assists). … Kyrou has 12 points (seven goals, five assists) in a seven-game point streak. … St. Louis defenseman Ryan Suter played in his 1,517th NHL game, passing Matt Cullen for 20th all-time.