ST. LOUIS — The game plan, as decreed by Montreal Canadiens coach Guy Carbonneau Saturday morning and printed on the team’s dressing-room board, was succinct:
1. Word hard.
2. Work harder.
The message, at least for one night, sunk in, as the Canadiens ended a four-game losing streak with a 4-3 victory over the St.
Louis Blues before 19,421 Scottrade Centre spectators. The game ended a five-game road trip for Montreal, which won for the first time away from the Bell Centre since Feb. 22, at Nashville.
Steve Begin, Maxim Lapierre, Guillaume Latendresse and Alex Kovalev, with the winner, scored for the Canadiens. Doug Weight, David Backes and Glen Metropolit replied for the Blues. Kovalev’s goal, at 18:35 of the third period, came 43 seconds after Metropolit tied the match.
Carbonneau shuffled his lines for the game, going with totally new combinations. The biggest surprise had Kovalev relegated to the fourth line, with Lapierre and Begin. But it turned out to be the Canadiens’ most-productive combination.
The coach also broke up the top line, playing Saku Koivu between Latendresse and Mike Johnson. Chris Higgins was teamed with Tomas Plekanec, while Michael Ryder found himself playing with Radek Bonk and Garth Murray.
The Blues had scored on their opening shot their last three games, but on this night they were victimized by a goal on the first shot against them, only 61 seconds following the opening faceoff.
Begin deflected Mathieu Dandenault’s shot from the point, as the Canadiens forward was left completely uncovered in front of netminder Curtis Sanford. The visitors then didn’t register another shot until the sixth minute, not that it mattered.
Montreal increased its lead to 2-0 at 13:33 of the period, while captain Koivu was serving a hooking penalty.
Blues veteran forward Weight lost the puck at the Canadiens’ blue line to Lapierre, who skated the length of the ice and snapped the puck past Sanford, despite having a St. Louis defender all over him.
It was Montreal’s NHL-leading 17th power-play goal, although it marked the first time in 30 games Lapierre had scored.
His drought stretched back to Dec.19, at Buffalo.
The two-goal lead augured well for the Canadiens.
Their record is now 8-0-1 when scoring the game’s opening two goals.
Montreal increased its lead to 3-0 at 5:14 of the second period, just as a holding penalty to Radek Dvorak expired. Latendresse scored his second goal in as many games, converting a cross-ice pass from Kovalev in the slot.
Sanford got a piece, but not enough, as the puck barely went over the goal line.
Blues coach Andy Murray had seen enough. After allowing three goals, including two soft ones, on 10 shots, he derricked Sanford, replacing him with Jason Bacashihua, playing for the first time since Feb.
25, at Chicago, when he came in for the third period.
The Blues’ best scoring chance to that point came in the period’s 12th minute, when Lee Stempniak came out from the corner and had two scoring opportunities against David Aebischer. Shortly thereafter, St.
Louis ended Aebischer’s bid for his first shutout this season, with Weight deflecting Brad Boyes’s shot past Aebischer, who appeared screened on the play.
The Blues cut Montreal’s lead to one at 7:10 of the third period, when Backes took a short pass from Jay McClement and beat Aebischer with a snapshot to the glove side from the top of the left-wing circle.
Johnson didn’t return after suffering a facial injury nine minutes into the game.
Johnson hooked Backes on the play and then slid face-first into the post. Adding insult to injury, Johnson was penalized on the play.
The Canadiens entertain the New York Islanders on Tuesday.
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