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Steen, Blues crush Canadiens

Dec 20, 2013 - 5:37 AM St. Louis, MO (SportsNetwork.com) - Alexander Steen lit the lamp twice and T.J. Oshie had two assists as the St. Louis Blues cruised past the Montreal Canadiens, 5-1, at Scottrade Center.

Jaden Schwartz, Chris Stewart, and Maxim Lapierre all scored for the Blues and Brenden Morrow tallied his 300th assist to help the Blues snap a two-game losing streak.

Jaroslav Halak stopped 25-of-26 shots in the victory.

Brendan Gallagher supplied Montreal's lone goal and Carey Price allowed all five goals for the Canadiens, who have lost two of their last three.

"We're making simple mistakes that we shouldn't be making," said Montreal winger Brian Gionta. "We're not supporting each other. We're not backing each other up and ... that's just not the way we need to be playing."

The Blues started the scoring 4:20 into the first. Oshie rushed up the left wing and dished a pass to Steen over towards the right of Price. Steen reached to gather the puck and lifted a shot past a sliding Price for a shorthanded marker.

Steen tallied his 24th goal of the season almost four minutes later. Derek Roy carried the puck into the Montreal zone and dropped a pass back to Steen at the right circle. Steen quickly wristed the puck over the shoulder of Price for his second of the night.

"We stuck with it and just played the way we should be playing, the way we were playing early in the season," said Steen.

The Blues went up by three at 13:33 in the first. Morrow dished a pass from behind the net and into the slot for Stewart, who snapped the puck into the net.

Gallagher knocked a rebound out of the air to get Montreal on the board 12:51 into the second.

Schwartz fired a shot through the arm of Price to give the Blues a 4-1 lead 12:21 into the third.

The Blues made it 5-1 with 2:27 remaining. Douglas Murray sent an inerrant pass through the slot and Lapierre slapped the puck into the back of the net to account for the final score.

Game Notes

The Blues are now 20-1-2 when scoring first ... St. Louis went 0-for-6 on the power play despite scoring five goals ... The Blues have won their last five games against the Canadiens ... Montreal plays in Nashville on Saturday, while St. Louis travels to Edmonton on Saturday.