WASHINGTON — Vince Dunn scored his first goal since October, David Perron extended his point streak and the St. Louis Blues turned the tables with three goals in five minutes to beat the Washington Capitals 4-1 Monday night for their first three-game winning streak of the season.
Dunn banked the puck in on a double deflection for his first goal in 33 games and assisted on Perron’s goal with a no-look backhanded pass. Goals by Ivan Barbashev, Dunn and Perron came in a span of 4:42 in the second period, and Vladimir Tarasenko scored on the power play in the third.
Perron, who rejoined St. Louis as a free agent in the off-season, has five goals and nine assists during his career-best 11-game point streak. Tarasenko has eight goals in his last eight games.
St. Louis Blues right wing Vladimir Tarasenko battles for the puck against Washington Capitals Tom Wilson, John Carlson and Jakub Vrana. (AP Photo/Nick Wass)
Jake Allen made 28 saves to pick up his first victory since Jan. 3. That also came against the defending Stanley Cup champion Capitals.
Alex Ovechkin scored his league-leading 33rd goal of the season for Washington, which dropped its second in a row. Ovechkin took over sole possession of sixth in NHL history with his 238th career power-play goal and tied Dave Andreychuk at 14th on the all-time list with the 640th goal of his career.
Capitals backup Pheonix Copley allowed four goals on 37 shots in his first game against his former team. Copley got the start over All-Star Braden Holtby, who injured his left eye Saturday when he took a stick to the face through his mask.
The Blues are finally finding some consistency in their 25th game under interim coach Craig Berube. A penalty to Dunn for boarding Brett Connolly paved the way for Ovechkin’s power-play goal, but St. Louis stabilized and got good enough goaltending to finally move above .500 at 13-11-1 since Berube took over for the fired Mike Yeo.
NOTES: With two assists, Ryan O’Reilly now has seven in his past seven games. … Capitals D Brooks Orpik played in his 1,000th regular-season game. Orpik is the first player in NHL history to reach 1,000 with fewer than 20 career goals. … Blues forwards Jordan Kyrou and Jordan Nolan were in the lineup after being called up Sunday. … Copley was originally signed by Washington, traded to St. Louis in 2015 and traded back in 2017. … Capitals 2013 draft pick Zach Sanford, who went to the Blues in the 2017 trade between the teams, played his first game against Washington.
UP NEXT
Blues: Undefeated rookie Jordan Binnington is expected to start in goal when they visit the New York Islanders on Tuesday.
Capitals: Look to end their two-game skid when they travel to Nashville to face the Predators on Tuesday.
___
Follow AP Hockey Writer Stephen Whyno on Twitter at https://twitter.com/SWhyno
___
More AP NHL: https://apnews.com/NHL and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports
Stephen Whyno, The Associated Press
