Brett Connolly scored early in the third period and Chris Driedger stopped 26 shots, leading the Florida Panthers to a 2-1 victory over the St. Louis Blues on Monday night.

Mike Hoffman also scored for Florida and Aleksi Saarela assisted on both Panthers goals, the first assists of his career. He has played in nine regular-season games for the Panthers.

Driedger made his third consecutive start after being held out of the lineup for almost two months with a lower-body injury. He is 2-0-1.

Colton Parayko scored for St. Louis. Jordan Binnington recorded 32 saves for the Blues and fell to 6-2 in his last eight starts.

Florida moved within one point of the idle Carolina Hurricanes for the final playoff spot in the East.

The Blues entered the game in first place in the Central Division, two points ahead of Colorado, which played late at Los Angeles. St. Louis ended a five-game home winning streak and fell to 9-2 in its last 11 games.

This game was originally scheduled to played Tuesday but was moved up to accommodate the rescheduling of the Blues’ game against the Anaheim Ducks, which was postponed last month after Jay Bouwmeester had a cardiac episode. 

The Blues will play at Anaheim on Wednesday.