It wasn’t Jake Allen’s day. It wasn’t the Canadian’s day. One was perhaps connected to the other.
Allen gave up twice on the first three shots aimed at him and the St. Louis Blues cruised to a 7-2 victory against the Montreal club on Sunday afternoon at the Bell Centre.
The Canadian has only two victories in his last eight games (2-5-1). He improved his record to 1-9-0 in his second game in as many days.
Allen didn’t help the Habs’ cause. He appeared weak on several Blues goals scored on long distance shots.
“Jake is a veteran. It wasn’t his game, but it happens to all goalkeepers, insisted the Canadiens’ head coach, Martin St-Louis. Tomorrow the sun will rise and we will return to work. I know that’s what Jake is going to do. »
But his teammates didn’t help him either by receiving several stupid penalties. The Blues finished the game 3 for 5 on the power play.
“I don’t think we played as bad as the score indicated,” said captain Nick Suzuki. We needed to deal with punishments better. It would have helped us gain confidence. We also wasted some good scoring opportunities. »
Suzuki and Joel Armia scored for the Canadian (21-23-8). Allen stopped 29 shots.
Cole Caufield was held off the scoresheet and saw his streak of consecutive games with at least one point stopped at 11.
Robert Thomas had a goal and three assists, while Jake Neighbors had a goal and an assist for the Blues (28-21-2), who have won seven of their last eight games. Jordan Kyrou, twice, Alexey Toropchenko, Nathan Walker and Colton Parayko also hit the target.
Torey Krug had five assists and Jordan Binnington made 30 saves.
The Canadian lost the services of defender Jordan Harris in the first period. He lost his balance behind his net just before Samuel Blais tackled him in the back.
Harris, who replaced Arber Xhekaj in the lineup, needed help retreating to the locker room and was cut under the mouth. He did not return to the game and the Canadian simply indicated that he had suffered an upper body injury and that his state of health will be re-evaluated on a daily basis.
Blais received a major penalty for giving away and a game misconduct.
Defender Kaiden Guhle was also shaken at the end of the game by a check from Marco Scandella. The Canadian did not immediately offer an update regarding his health.
Recalled on Saturday evening from the Laval Rocket, forward Joshua Roy played a seventh game with the Canadian this season. He replaced Rafaël Harvey-Pinard, who was injured in a collision with teammate Joel Armia in the second period of the Canadian’s eventual 3-2 loss to the Dallas Stars on Saturday.
The Canadian will play their next game on Tuesday, when they host the Anaheim Ducks at the Bell Centre.
Soon the end
Toropchenko got the ball rolling after just 25 seconds of play. He deftly got past defender Jayden Struble before going around Allen and sliding the puck into the opening.
Parayko returned to the charge at 5:05, when his shot from the blue line fooled Allen’s vigilance.
After several laborious minutes on the power play during the major penalty against Blais, the Habs hit the target a few seconds after the return to even strength, at 10:23. Suzuki scored following a cross pass from Juraj Slafkovsky.
Kyrou restored the Blues’ two-goal lead with 4:40 left in the first period on the power play. He took advantage of a comeback after a long shot from Thomas that Allen did not control.
The Canadian threatened during a power play early in the second period, but Binnington closed the door. Otherwise, the engagement was not very lively.
Walker made it 4-1 for the visitors with 2:11 left in the period. He surprised Allen with a backhanded throw from the slot.
Thomas took advantage of Allen’s generosity to score on the power play 31 seconds into the third period.
Armia responded for the Canadian at 3:06, when a shot from David Savard grazed him before ending up in the goal.
Neighbors took advantage of the Habs’ indiscipline to add another power play goal at 7:14.
Allen gave up another goal to Kyrou with 4:27 left. The Blues striker missed the target, but the rebound from the ramp gave against Allen before crossing the goal line.
Michael Pezzetta scored for the Canadian with 60 seconds left in the game, but the goal was canceled as Johnathan Kovacevic engaged in a fight with Neighbors just before the goal.