Canadiens defeat St. Louis with lone goal of shootout

ST. LOUIS -- Alexei Kovalev scored the lone shootout goal to give the Montreal Canadiens a 3-2 victory over the St. Louis Blues on Sunday night.

After the Blues missed on all three of their shots in the tiebreaker, Kovalev beat Manny Legace with a high backhander for the win.

Andrei Kostitsyn and Robert Lang scored in regulation for the Canadiens, who won for only the second time in six games after starting the season 8-1-1. Carey Price stopped 24 shots.

The Canadiens were 0-for-10 on the power play and have scored twice in their last 36 chances. St. Louis was 1-for-9 with the man advantage.

Steve Regier scored twice for the Blues, and Legace also stopped 24 shots.

The Blues appeared on their way to a win until Lang tied it at 2-2 with 4:12 to play on an assist from Kostitsyn.

Regier, recalled earlier in the day from Peoria of the AHL, took a feed from David Perron in the low left slot and beat Price 3:24 into the final period to give the Blues a 2-1 lead.