Coming off back-to-back road victories against the Anaheim Ducks and Los Angeles Kings, Vancouver cut the deficit to 3-1 while killing a penalty at 12:38 when Sutter moved in on a 2-on-1 rush and beat Allen with a low shot for his second.
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“It’s unfortunate we get the back-to-back in Vancouver”, Hitchcock said. When Scott Gomez scores, I want to see puppies. We’ll know if Texas A&M has practically eliminated Alabama from championship contention or if the Aggies have joined the one-loss club. The Blues were up 4-1 late in the third before they tipped a couple pretty ones past Allen.
The Canucks have seven points through their first four games, their only blemish being a 3-2 overtime loss to the Calgary Flames, good enough for first place in the Western Conference.
Tarasenko and Carl Gunnarsson chipped in with two assists each.
The Canucks will continue their five-game road trip on Sunday against Connor McDavid and the Edmonton Oilers.
The Blues’ first win in Vancouver since October 2011 came with a qualifier, however, as it finished without Paul Stastny.
His condition was not immediately known. Centers Jori Lehtera and Kyle Brodziak and defenseman Robert Bortuzzo also scored for the Blues. Neither would be scoring the first goal tonight.
It belonged to Lehtera, whose second of the season was his second in as many nights. Left winger Jaden Schwartz gained control of the puck along the boards, then sent a cross-ice pass to Lehtera. The 23-year-old Russian led St. Louis in both goals (37) and points (73) last season.
Steen finished off a dandy passing sequence that saw the puck touch the stick of all three players on the top line. Brandon Sutter and Alex Burrows broke in on a two-on-one while shorthanded, and Sutter fired one five-hole on Jake Allen for his 100th career goal. Rumour has Virtanen and McCann in the lineup for Friday night against the Blues, as well as Hutton, with forward Sven Baertschi and d-man Yannick Weber getting the hook.
The Blues, who had played Thursday night in Edmonton, snapped a six-game losing streak to the Canucks.
Horvat was on the ice for three of the St. Louis goals. Don’t let the score fool you, it was never all that close.
Notes: Stastny left in the second period and did not return…. The second and third periods of every game have been much improved efforts, a testimony to the adaptation that is going on to the team’s new #reckless style of play.
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The Canucks trailed 3-1 after two periods on Friday, but could do nothing with the 2:33 left on Vladimir Tarasenko’s double minor for high sticking on a fresh sheet of ice to start the third. He returned for one shift, then went to the dressing room.
