Blues outlast Knights for fourth straight victory in Western Conference

Zach Sanford had a goal and an assist, and Jordan Binnington had 24 saves to lead the St. Louis Blues to their fourth straight victory, 3-1, over the visiting Vegas Golden Knights on Monday night. Ryan O'Reilly and Ivan Barbashev also scored goals for St. Louis, which improved to 26-9-4 since Jan. 1, the best record in the Western Conference during that span.

It was the fifth straight victory for Binnington, who improved to 21-4-1 in his rookie season, with all the wins coming since Jan. 7. The Blues also completed a three-game sweep of the Golden Knights in their regular-season series, improving to 4-0-2 all-time against the defending Western Conference champions. William Karlsson scored for Vegas, which suffered its second consecutive loss. Malcolm Subban, making his fifth straight start in place of injured Marc-Andre Fleury, finished with 19 saves.

Barbashev gave the Blues a 1-0 lead late in the first period thanks to a misplay by Subban. The Vegas goaltender sent the puck behind his net directly to Sanford, who quickly passed to Barbashev to the right of the goal, where he fired a wrist shot under Subban's left arm for his 13th marker of the season. Karlsson tied it in the second period with a power-play goal, driving a rebound of a Colin Miller shot over Binnington's glove and inside the right post for his 23rd goal of the season.

O'Reilly put the Blues back in front just three minutes later, taking a stretch pass from Jay Bouwmeester and then breaking in on the left side and beating Subban with a wrist shot into the top right corner for his 27th goal of the season. Sanford made it 3-1 early in the third period off a rebound after Robert Bortuzzo's shot from the right circle ricocheted off Subban's stick straight into Sanford's chest and then into the left side of the net.