~ St. Louis won its third straight game as its goaltender beat his former team

ST. LOUIS -- Jaroslav Halak still has a lot of friends with the Montreal Canadiens. After shutting them down Thursday night, he might have lost a few.

Halak downplayed facing his former teammates all week, but was beaming after helping the St. Louis Blues beat the Canadiens 4-1.

"During the game, you just want to focus on hockey. You don't want to think about the friends on the other side or ex-teammates," Halak said after his 27-save effort.

After allowing a first-period goal to Jeff Halpern on the Canadiens' sixth shot, Halak was in lockdown mode the rest of the way, stopping the final 22 shots he would face.

Blues goalie Jaroslav Halak makes a save during the third period against the Montreal Canadiens on Thursday in St. Louis. Halak, playing against his former team for the first time since being traded to St. Louis in the offseason, stopped 27 of 28 shots as the Blues defeated the Canadiens 4-1. (Tom Gannam ~ Associated Press)

"Obviously, when you play for a team and then you get traded, you want to beat them every time you play them," Halak said. "We play Montreal only once a year, so that was my chance this year. I needed to make sure I gave it my best."

Montreal was playing its first game without left winger Max Pacioretty, out indefinitely with a severe concussion and fractured fourth vertebrae as a result of a check Tuesday night at the hands of Boston defenseman Zdeno Chara. Pacioretty was released from the hospital Thursday.

"You're concerned about him, but at the end of the day, we're professionals," Canadiens captain Brian Gionta said. "We're going to go out there and put things behind us. I just think our effort wasn't there tonight."

Andy McDonald had a goal and two assists, and Matt D'Agostini added a goal and an assist for St. Louis.

"We know the situation with the trade," McDonald said. "For us, playing back-to-back, we needed a big effort. We're aware of the situation. We have injuries, younger players being called up. ... It was a great overall effort."

St. Louis Blues goalie Jaroslav Halak, top, is congratulated by teammates Carlo Colaiacovo, Alex Pietrangelo and Chris Stewart after finishing off the Montreal Canadiens in an NHL hockey game, Thursday, March 10, 2011 in St. Louis. Halak, playing against his former team for the first time since being traded to the Blues in the offseason, stopped 27 of 28 shots as the Blues defeated the Canadiens 4-1. (AP Photo/Tom Gannam)

The Blues' faint playoff hopes remained alive with their third win in a row as Halak, a playoff star for Montreal last season, got back at his former team in the process, outdueling Carey Price.

Price stopped 23 shots, but the Canadiens saw their five-game winning streak come to an end. David Backes had a goal and T.J. Oshie added a short-handed empty-netter for the Blues.

The Canadiens did all they could to downplay the long-anticipated matchup despite facing all sorts of questions about facing Halak and dealing with Pacioretty's injury.

"I think that's more of the outside world just making a big deal out of that," Canadiens center Scott Gomez said. "We knew we were going to face [Halak]. He played great. He did a good job."

McDonald gave the Blues a 2-1 lead 1 minute, 6 seconds into the second period after D'Agostini poked the puck away from Benoit Pouliot in the offensive zone. McDonald found himself alone in front of Price and snapped a wrister past the blocker side.

Noteworthy

* The Blues will be without left winger Alex Steen (high ankle sprain) and defenseman Barret Jackman (broken index finger) for at least four weeks. Both were injured Wednesday night in an overtime victory against Columbus.