Christian Dvorak achieved his 1st career NHL hat trick as the Montreal Canadiens blew past a struggling St. Louis Blues team 7-4 Saturday night at Enterprise Center.
Dvorak didn't tally his 3 goals til the 3rd period, but Montreal was already on top of things way before then. Even though Jordan Kyrou (2) opened the scoring book for both sides at 7:47, the Habs would tie things later on at 15:08 with Nick Suzuki (4). The first period ended tied 1-1. In the 2nd period, St. Louis scored 2 goals to take a 3-1 lead, first by Noel Acciari (1) at 5:10 and then Kyrou's 2nd of the night (3) on the power play. Montreal would score 3 unanswered goals after that though, to take a 4-3 lead heading into the 3rd period. The first was by Cole Caufield (6) at 10:56, then Juraj Slafkovsky (2) on the power play at 13:05, and Caufield's 2nd of the night (7) at 15:46, also on the power play.
The 3rd period saw Dvorak start his hat trick effort, his 1st goal of the season, and he only needed 41 seconds to kick things off. This gave Montreal a 5-3 lead and Dvorak would make it 6-3 Habs not too long after at 1:21 for his 2nd goal of the night and of the 2022-23 season. Vladimir Tarasenko got St. Louis' final goal at 2:47 (3), but Dvorak had the last laugh, completing his hat trick at 18:25 (3) on an empty St. Louis goal.
St. Louis did manage to both outshoot and outhit the Canadiens, 30-25 and 28-16 while being edged in faceoff wins, 29-28. The Blues also totaled 8 penalty minutes while Montreal had 6. The Habs improve to 5-4-0 and 3rd in the Atlantic Division while St. Louis suffers their 4th straight defeat, falling to 3-4-0 and 7th in the Central Division. Montreal's next contest is a November 1 trip to Minnesota to face the Wild (3-4-1) at 8 pm, while St. Louis faces the LA Kings (5-5-0) on Halloween night at home with an 8 pm puck drop.
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