ST. LOUIS (AP) -- St. Louis' 4-3 victory over Montreal wasn't the kind of performance that thrilled either team.

"Getting the lead was important but then we sat on it in the third period," St. Louis' Pierre Turgeon said. "We did a bad job of doing things like getting the puck out of the zone and they almost came back."

	St. Louis' Pierre Turgeon got back in the scoring groove Thursday, much to the dismay of Turner Stevenson's Montreal Canadiens.

Blues coach Joel Quenneville agreed.

"I didn't like the way we played most of the game tonight," Quenneville said. "We had to hang on for dear life at the end and it wasn't pretty."

Turgeon scored two first-period goals and added an assist.

Turgeon, who had his 15-game scoring streak snapped Tuesday against Los Angeles, scored his 18th and 19th goals of the season to help extend St. Louis' unbeaten streak to five.

Montreal has not won since Dec. 20, a six-game stretch, and is winless in its last five road games.

Turgeon was credited with his first goal on the power play at 5:15. He attempted to center the puck from the blue line and Canadiens forward Benoit Brunet deflected the puck past goalie Jose Theodore.

The goal was St. Louis' first power-play goal in three games.

"That's a tough way to start the game," Canadiens forward Shayne Corson said. "It was an unlucky break because Benoit did everything right. Unfortunately the puck ended up in our net."

Turgeon scored again at 12:33 to increase St. Louis' lead to 2-0. He took a pass from Jochen Hecht, moved from behind the net and put a back-hander through Theodore's pads.

St. Louis goalie Roman Turek made 19 saves and he ran his personal unbeaten streak to five games.

After a goal by Blues forward Lubos Bartecko made it 3-0, Trevor Linden scored to make it 3-1.

Linden gathered a rebound just outside the crease and beat Turek for his third goal of the year at 11:53 of the second period.

St. Louis defenseman Al MacInnis scored his seventh goal of the season in the third period. He took a pass from Turgeon and blasted a slap shot past Theodore to increase St. Louis' lead to 4-1.

"We sat on the lead and should have played the way we did in the first period," Turgeon said.

"I think we're satisfied to be getting through these games and playing ordinary," Quenneville said.

Canadiens coach Alain Vigneault was pleased his team came back.

"We've got a lot of guys on this team who don't quit," Vigneault said. "I thought we played as well as you can, especially against a powerhouse like that."

Montreal got a power-play goal in the third period by Francis Bouillon. Montreal closed it to 4-3 at 13:05 when Igor Ulanov scored his first of the season.

Montreal outshot St. Louis 22-18 -- the first time in 21 games the Blues have been outshot.

The Blues are unbeaten in 18 of their last 21 at Kiel Center.