Blues defeat Capitals for first three-game winning streak

WASHINGTON-- The St. Louis Blues have their first three-game winning streak of the season after a 4-1 win against the Washington Capitals at Capital One Arena on Monday.

David Perron extended his NHL career-high point streak to 11 games with a goal for the Blues (20-20-4), who have won five of seven. Jake Allen made 28 saves.
"We've said all year long we've needed to string some wins together, especially with the start that we've had," Allen said. "We're still in the thick of things, really. We're not that far out of it, we've still got a couple games in hand and hopefully we can continue and cap off this road trip on the right note."
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Alex Ovechkin scored a power-play goal for Washington (27-13-5), which has lost two straight. Ovechkin passed Brendan Shanahan (238) for sixth place in NHL power-play goals and tied Dave Andreychuk (640) for 14th place in goals.
"We didn't play the right way, we didn't play well, and you can see the result," Ovechkin said. "All of us. It was bad play, bad game. Forget it, and tomorrow is a new day."
Pheonix Copley made 33 saves against his former team, and Washington defenseman Brooks Orpik played his 1,000th NHL game.
Allen won for the second time since Dec. 27.
"He was really sharp for us tonight and it was great to see for sure. He kept us in the game," Perron said. "Early even, that bomb from Ovechkin, I don't think many goalies would have stopped that."
The Capitals took a 1-0 lead when Ovechkin scored on a one-timer from the left circle at 7:50 of the first period off a pass from Dmitry Orlov. Ovechkin has three goals and two assists in his past five games and leads the NHL with 33 goals.

Washington was 2-for-37 on the power play in its past 13 games.
St. Louis made it 1-1 when Ivan Barbashev controlled a loose puck behind the goal line and jammed it in at 3:18 of the second period.
Vince Dunn gave the Blues a 2-1 lead at 5:11 when his shot deflected off Orlov's stick and went in off Washington forward Nicklas Backstrom.
Perron scored off a cross-ice pass from Dunn to make it 3-1 at 8:00 of the second. Perron has five goals and nine assists during his streak.
"He's playing phenomenal. He's making great plays," Blues center Ryan O'Reilly said of Perron. "He's got great vision but protects the puck so well. Scores a huge goal for us tonight."
Vladimir Tarasenko scored a power-play goal at 10:24 of the third period to extend the lead to 4-1.
"I don't know, we just didn't seem as desperate as they did for some reason," Orpik said. "Kind of seemed like we were second to the puck on a lot of loose pucks. A couple weird bounces there on two of the goals, but they were playing in our zone for the most part there in the second period."

They said it

"I think our mentality's changed. We're a north team now. We control the puck in the offensive zone a lot. We shoot the puck and get to the net. That's our game. And when we don't have it, we do a good job defending and keep teams on the outside as much as possible and limit shots." -- Blues coach Craig Berube
"We all know in here that we have to be better, especially 5-on-5. Over the course of 82 games you're going to have your ups and downs, and hopefully this is our down." -- Capitals forward Nicklas Backstrom

Need to know

Perron is the first St. Louis player to get at least one point in at least 11 consecutive games since Alexander Steen from Oct. 17-Nov. 16, 2013 (13 games; 13 goals, five assists). ... St. Louis won two in a row five times. ... Capitals goalie Braden Holtby was the backup. He left a 2-1 loss to the Columbus Blue Jackets on Saturday when he was poked in the left eye with a stick. ... Ovechkin has 10 goals (including two hat tricks) and three assists in his past seven games against St. Louis.

What's next

Blues: At the New York Islanders on Tuesday (Barclays Center; 7 p.m. ET; MSG+, FS-MW, NHL.TV)
Capitals: At the Nashville Predators on Tuesday (8 p.m. ET; SN, TVAS, FS-TN, NBCSWA, NHL.TV)