Montreal, QC (Sports Network) - Brad Boyes scored the lone goal of the shootout, while Manny Legace was perfect at the other end, helping the St. Louis Blues to a 4-3 win over the Montreal Canadiens at the Bell Centre.

In the second round of the shootout, Boyes' backhand attempt caromed off the inside of the left post, hit the stick of Habs netminder Jaroslav Halak and bounced over the goal line.

"I was coming down, the puck was rolling a little bit. I was kind of nervous settling it down and the move is what I wanted to do," said Boyes, who has six goals in his last six games. "I just shot it up over his pad. I got lucky. It hit off his pad or it hit him and went in. I saw the red light and I was happy about that."

Legace, who had denied Montreal's Saku Koivu in the first round, then turned aside shots by Andrei Kostitsyn and Alex Kovalev to preserve the victory.

Keith Tkachuk, Andy McDonald and Boyes all tallied in regulation for the Blues, who won on the road for the first time in 11 contests. Legace finished with 27 saves.

Chris Higgins, Mikhail Grabovski and Koivu each lit the lamp for the Habs, who have dropped three of their last five games. Halak turned aside 25-of-28 shots as Montreal moved into a first-place tie with idle New Jersey atop the Eastern Conference. Both clubs have 90 points. The Canadiens also remain in first place in the Northeast Division, three points better than idle Ottawa.

Trailing by a goal heading to the third, the Habs made it 3-all following a Blues' turnover in the neutral zone that led to an odd-man rush. Grabovski then finished off the race to the net when he snapped a shot past Legace at the 6:36 mark.

The game showcased a defensive lock down from that point on, including the five-minute overtime, when each side had three scoring chances apiece.

The Blues used an early 5-on-3 power play to their advantage, as Tkachuk rifled a shot top-shelf and over the glove of Halak at 4:51 of the first period. The Habs were shorthanded after penalties to Koivu and Tomas Plekanec just 29 seconds apart.

Higgins tied it up when he swept a backhand attempt through the five-hole of Legace at 11:28.

Montreal made it 2-1 near the midpoint of the second, as Koivu knocked home a rebound on the power play, but the Blues answered only 47 seconds later on McDonald's 15th of the campaign, a hard wrister that sailed over Halak's right shoulder.

Boyes put the visitors up 3-2 when he stationed himself just off the left side of the crease and roofed Paul Kariya's feed under the crossbar with 4:03 left.

"We just had to grind it out against the Blues after the second period and that's what we talked about in the intermission," Canadiens coach Guy Carbonneau said. "I don't think we played a bad game, but to win at this time of year, you need more than we did tonight. We came back to save a point, but we missed an opportunity to get two points against a team we should have beat. Our work ethic was not high enough."