Montreal, QC (SportsNetwork.com) - Max Pacioretty scored two goals on his 26th birthday, helping the Montreal Canadiens beat the St. Louis Blues 4-1 on Thursday at Bell Centre.
Dale Weise and Lars Eller also scored and Carey Price made 31 saves for the Canadiens, who snapped a five-game losing streak in the series.
Montreal rebounded from Tuesday's 4-0 loss to Pittsburgh to win for the seventh time in its last eight games.
Rookie Jake Allen stopped 26-of-30 shots for St. Louis, which has opened a four-game road trip with consecutive losses. The Blues had won 10 of 11 before Tuesday's 2-0 loss to Boston.
Vladimir Tarasenko opened the scoring at 7:45 of the first period, batting a deflected pass from Jori Lehtera out of the air and past Price.
The Canadiens tied it when Weise picked off defenseman Kevin Shattenkirk's pass from behind the St. Louis net and buried a right circle shot at 4:50 of the second period.
Pacioretty collected a stretch pass from Pierre-Alexandre Parenteau and beat Allen on a breakaway to put the Canadiens ahead at 7:32 of the second. Pacioretty got behind defenseman Jay Bouwmeester, who was unable to knock down the puck, at the St. Louis blue line.
Montreal took a 3-1 lead when Pacioretty fired a wrist shot from the right circle past Allen six minutes into the third period.
"I told my parents this morning that this is my time, around my birthday, but I don't want to get too far ahead of myself," Pacioretty said. "I'm just happy to contribute and hope we all keep going now."
Eller, a former 2007 first-round pick of the Blues playing in his 300th career game with the Canadiens, collected a Brandon Prust pass and scored on a wrist shot from the slot at 12:03.
"Right from the start we weren't really good," Bouwmeester said. "We have to figure it out on the road."
Game Notes
Montreal forward Tomas Plekanec played in his 700th career NHL game ... The Canadiens swung a trade with the Anaheim Ducks prior to the game, acquiring defenseman Bryan Allen in exchange for forward Rene Bourque.