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By the fifth goal, the fist-bump line became too much, too excessive, too unnecessary for the Blues. The lead was ballooning, the outcome’s doubt was fading and the Blues were all but finished celebrating an eventual 7-2 win over the Kraken on Tuesday night.

When Cam Fowler’s fluttering shot from the point evaded bodies in the slot and at the net-front to find the back of the net and give the Blues a 5-0 lead, the revelry was subdued. The Kraken had already been embarrassed enough. And the Blues knew they were on their way to their first four-game point streak since they had a five-game streak to start Jim Montgomery’s tenure in St. Louis.

Six different Blues scored goals, including two by Zack Bolduc. Thirteen different Blues had points, led by three-point games by both Oskar Sundqvist and Fowler. Robert Thomas had a goal and an assist to run his point streak to seven games. And Jordan Binnington made 25 saves to continue his hot streak through the hockey world, international or otherwise.

The Blues (27-26-6) moved within four points of a playoff spot, though they have played two more games than the Flames, who won in Washington on Tuesday night to jump Vancouver.

“We can’t be fooled by this game, by scoring seven goals,� Sundqvist said. “It’s a lot of hard work that comes through it and you see that in all four lines today, it’s everyone. As soon as you lose the puck, it’s hard strides to get the puck back and winning battles. Everyone worked their (butts) off tonight. That’s why we were able to score seven goals.�

The seven goals scored tied a season high for the Blues. In the past three games, the Blues have 13 combined goals in collecting five out of six points. It’s the first time St. Louis has had a three-game outburst like that since a post-Christmas scoring spree than spanned the first two weeks of January.

In scoring the final three goals Sunday against Colorado, and then the first seven against Seattle, the Blues rattled off 10 straight unanswered goals at one point.

“We played hard offensive hockey,� Montgomery said. “If we didn’t have a play to make, we went and put it in behind, went to work on the forecheck, or we were putting it in an area where someone was skating towards that area. I thought the defensemen did a great job in that first period of really holding the O-zone, hammering walls, having tight gaps, which allowed our forwards to get more offensive-zone time.�

Hard offensive hockey has been a common theme from Montgomery since his team returned from the 4 Nations Face-Off break. He’s preached a more aggressive forecheck. He’s complimented the way his team has pushed its way to the net-front. He’s seen it up and down the lineup, from the top-line stars to the bottom-six supporters in Sundqvist and Bolduc.

“It’s a mindset and it’s a willingness to play hard offensive hockey,� Montgomery said. “I think you’re starting to see a lot more net drives. That’s the second component of hard offensive hockey. It’s not just willing to go forecheck. It’s when we have speed on the outside, we’ve got to have speed in the middle of the ice that creates either defensemen coming late open, or the wide guy open.�

Sundqvist: “I feel like maybe we’ve been thinking a little bit too much before who’s going to be the first guy and the second, the third (on the forecheck). Now, we almost have two first guys. It’s better to be a little bit overaggressive, I feel like, especially if you work as hard as we did tonight. We were winning puck battles and getting the puck back.�

Montgomery pointed to Bolduc’s first goal of the night as a great example of hard hockey and driving the net. Justin Faulk carried the puck wide. Sundqvist drove the middle lane. Bolduc filled in at the back post. And the puck slid left player to player to player as Bolduc celebrated his 22nd birthday a day late.

With two goals on Tuesday, Bolduc has five points in his past five games after he went seven games without a point.

“It’s always fun to score two goals like that, but my linemates played well,� Bolduc said. “All the team played well tonight, so it makes the game fun to play.�

The four-game point streak could very well have been more than that. The Blues were 11.8 seconds away from sending a game against the Panthers into overtime but were stunned when Matthew Tkachuk won the game for Florida. If that game goes into OT, the Blues are staring at a seven-game point streak entering Thursday’s game at Washington, the Eastern Conference’s best team.

As it stands, the Blues enter the teeth of their schedule.

There are only four games left before the March 7 trade deadline, and all are against current playoff teams. Eight of the next 10 games are on the road.

Back-to-back wins will usher in positive feelings, but the climb ahead of the Blues remains daunting. Calgary is on pace for 92 points, a total that would require the Blues to finish the season on a 16-7-0 run. If that cutoff reaches a typical 95-point plateau, the Blues would need a 17-5-1 record.

Having the offense to lean back on has helped, though.

“I think the offensive opportunities were coming,� Montgomery said. “We started seeing in building in the last two periods of the Winnipeg game, we were seeing it again in the Colorado game for 60 minutes. It’s just repetition. It’s building good habits, and the habits are there right now.�