The Canadian Press
Kelsey Patterson
MONTREAL–Claude Julien doesn’t want his team to get overconfident after a surprisingly strong start to the season.
The Montreal Canadiens won their third game in a row, and improved to 4-1-1 overall, after edging the St. Louis Blues 3-2 last night.
Julien’s squad is well ahead of last year’s pace, when they needed 12 games to earn their first nine points, compared to six games this season.
“Right now I’m not proud of anything because it’s only six games,” Julien said.
“I’m glad with the way things are going but there’s no reason to get carried away with where we are right now,” he stressed.
“There’s still lots to accomplish.
“I could be proud of a lot of things but I prefer being humble in these situations where things can change quickly.”
It looked like Brayden Schenn had salvaged a point for the struggling Blues (1-3-2) when he beat Carey Price, on the power play, with 3:29 to go to tie the game at 2-2.
But a horrible giveaway by Blues’ defenceman Colton Parayko deep in his own zone led to Brendan Gallagher’s winning goal with 11 seconds left in regulation time.
From the corner of the ice, Parayko whiffed on a pass and the puck went right to Tomas Tatar, who poked it to Gallagher at the side of the net.
The Canadiens’ winger redirected the pass up and over Jake Allen’s right pad for the winner.
“You obviously don’t expect it,” said Gallagher, who leads Montreal with four goals.
“You have to be in the right spot.
“I thought ‘Tuna’ [Tatar] did a good job to create the turnover and fortunately enough it ended up where I didn’t do that much,” he added.
“I just had to chip it in.”
“It’s obviously a tough play. I feel bad for Colton,” said Blues’ coach Mike Yeo.
“But we’re not playing well enough to win hockey games,” he conceded. “And when you do that, yeah, one play can be the difference.
“You don’t deserve to win if you only go out and play hard in the third period,” Yeo reasoned.
“We’re not playing 60 minutes.”
The victory was Montreal’s first against the Blues since Oct. 20, 2015. The Canadiens were 0-3-2 in their last five versus St. Louis.
Elsewhere in the NHL, Calgary beat Boston 5-2, Washington nipped the N.Y. Rangers 4-3 (OT), and Anaheim downed the N.Y. Islanders 4-1.
