Blues extend win streak to 9 games

MONTREAL (AP) -- Pavol Demitra had a goal and two assists as the St. Louis Blues extended their NHL-best winning streak to nine games with a 5-2 victory over the Montreal Canadiens on Tuesday night.

Rookie Eric Boguniecki scored twice, and Martin Rucinsky and Doug Weight also scored for St. Louis, which completed a perfect three-game road trip.

Fred Brathwaite stopped 13 shots for his fifth straight win. The Blues, who outshot Montreal 36-15, are undefeated in 10 games since a season-opening loss to Anaheim and have won each of their five road games this season.

St. Louis had a team-record 10-game winning streak last Jan. 3-23.

Trailing 2-1, the Blues scored a pair of power-play goals in the second to take the lead.

Rucinsky tied it at 8:26 with his third goal in three games since signing as a free agent on Oct. 30, and Demitra scored his second of the season with 4:23 left in the period to put the Blues ahead.

Boguniecki, who scored earlier in the second, got his second of the game and sixth of the season on an unassisted effort 13:06 into the third. Weight scored his fifth goal with 1:52 remaining.

Jan Bulis and Saku Koivu scored for Montreal, which was unbeaten in its four previous games.

The Blues held a 12-4 margin in shots in the first, but the Canadiens managed the period's only goal when Bulis drove a shot between Brathwaite's legs with 1:12 left.

Boguniecki scored his fifth goal 2:58 into the second to tie it as he got behind defenseman Patrice Brisebois and tapped Demitra's pass into the crease past goalie Jose Theodore.

Koivu restored Montreal's lead less than 2 minutes later when he beat Brathwaite with a backhand shot from the edge of the crease at 4:57.

The Blues tied it on a power play at 8:26 when Rucinsky swept a shot under Theodore's stick and through his legs.

Demitra put St. Louis up 3-2 with another power-play goal at 15:37 after Scott Mellanby's pass to the slot set him up to shoot into a wide-open right side.

Notes: Weight, who assisted on Demitra's goal, has five goals and 11 assists during an eight-game point streak. ... Blues defenseman Jeff Finley left the game after he was checked heavily into the boards by Montreal's Bill Lindsay about 5 minutes into the first. ... Canadiens RW Donald Audette was a healthy scratch for the fourth game in a row.