ST. LOUIS (AP) - The St. Louis Blues used a familiar formula to beat the Washington Capitals 4-1 on Saturday night. The Blues got goals from Jori Lehtera, Jaden Schwartz, David Backes and Patrik Berglund and a strong performance from goalie Brian Elliott, who stopped 23 of 24 shots, to win their third consecutive game.
The Blues who entered the game leading the NHL is goals-against average (1.9 goals per game), have now won 10 of their last 11 games to improve to 12-4-1, with 25 points.
The Capitals (7-7-3, 17 points), who were playing the first game of a three-game road trip, lost for the second straight night. They lost to the New Jersey Devils 1-0 on Friday.
After taking a drop pass from Schwartz, Lehtera opened the scoring for the Blues with 10:49 left in the first period. It was his seventh goal of the season.
The goal, which earned Kevin Shattenkirk his team-leading 14th assist in 17 games, was Lehtera's fifth goal in four games and extended his point streak to seven games (five goals, six assists).
Washington's Joel Ward tied the score 1-1 with 13:22 left in the second period. His wrist shot from the left circle appeared to be stopped by Brian Elliott but it trickled past the Blues' goalie for Ward's eighth goal of the year.
Schwartz put the Blues back in front 2-1 with his seventh goal of the season off a rebound of a Shattenkirk shot with 7:24 remaining in the second period.
Backes gave St. Louis some breathing room with his fifth goal of the season just 12 seconds into the third period. Capitals goalie Justin Peters misplayed the puck behind the net and Berglund slipped a pass to Backes, who buried a quick shot into the wide-open goal.
Berglund made it 4-1 on a wrist shot with 3:19 remaining, assisted by T.J. Oshie and Backes.
NOTES: The Blues traded veteran defenseman Jordan Leopold to Columbus for a fifth-round draft pick in 2016 on Saturday. St. Louis recalled Chris Butler from its AHL affiliate, the Chicago Wolves, to serve as their seventh defenseman. . The attendance of 19,339 was the Blues' third sellout of the season. . Since 2010-11, the Blues are an NHL-best 42-10-4 in interconference play. St. Louis is 5-0-0 against the Eastern Conference since losing to the New York Rangers on Oct. 9.
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