Kirby Dach back in goal column as Canadiens top Blues

Kirby Dach. Jake Evens and Joel Armia each scored a goal and earned an assist as the Montreal Canadiens defeated the visiting St. Louis Blues 5-2 on Saturday night to snap their four-game losing streak.

For Dach, who missed the last 80 games last season with a knee injury, it was his first goal since March 23, 2023.

Alex Newhook and Cole Caufield also scored for the Canadiens. Mike Matheson and Nick Suzuki each earned two assists and Sam Montembeault made 29 saves.

Colton Parayko and Jake Neighbours scored for the Blues and Jordan Binnington made 21 saves.

After killing off their first penalty, with Montembeault stopping Neighbours' point-blank shot, the Canadiens took a 1-0 lead. Evans scored off left wing to convert a two-on-one break.

Shortly after that, Montembeault kept Montreal on top by stopping Jordan Kyrou on a two-on-one rush.

Montreal increased its lead to 2-0 early in the second period. Matheson fired a shot from the blue line, Suzuki poked at the rebound on goal, then Dach swept the second rebound into the net.

Just 21 seconds later, Parayko drove to the net and jammed in the rebound of Ryan Suter's shot to cut the St. Louis deficit to 2-1.

Neighbours tied the game 2:29 later. After Montembeault stopped Brayden Schenn's clean break-in, Brandon Saad retrieved the puck behind the net and fed Neighbours in front of the goal.

Montreal regained the lead 3-2 with a power-play goal with 5:56 left in the second period. Newhook converted Dach's cross-ice pass with a tap-in at the right post.

The Canadiens capitalized on an Oskar Sundqvist offensive turnover to boost their lead to 4-2, with Caufield scoring off the rush with 14:41 left to play.

With Binnington off the ice for an extra attacker, Armia scored an empty-netter to make it 5-2.

--Field Level Media