Schenn nets winner as Blues beat Canucks 4-3 in overtime
VANCOUVER — Brayden Schenn scored at 2:41 of overtime as the St. Louis Blues defeated the Vancouver Canucks 4-3 on Saturday night.
The Blues forward beat Anders Nilsson high blocker for eighth goal of the season after cutting through the neutral zone and across the Vancouver blue line.
Colton Parayko, Vladimir Sobotka and Joel Edmundson scored in regulation for St. Louis (15-5-1). Paul Stastny added three assists for the Western Conference-leading Blues, who got 20 stops from Jake Allen.
Sven Baertschi, with a goal and an assist, Brock Boeser and Markus Granlund replied for Vancouver (9-8-3), while Loui Eriksson added two assists. Nilsson made 27 saves for the Canucks, who have lost four of five.
Trailing 3-2 after two periods, the Blues tied the game at 4:46 of the third when Edmundson fired a shot past Nilsson off a feed from Stastny after some good work by Alex Pietrangelo to force a turnover by Canucks defenceman Derek Pouliot in the corner.
The goal came moments after Nilsson made a nice pad stop on Sobotka’s partial breakaway.
Nilsson, who started for the second time in three games after sitting out seven straight, then made another difficult save on Vladimir Tarasenko after he walked around Alexander Edler.
Tied 1-1 through 20 minutes, St. Louis nearly grabbed its first lead at 3:45 of the second when Tarasenko snapped a shot from the face-off dot that snuck through Nilsson, but the Vancouver netminder reached back with his blocker hand and grabbed the puck as it dribbled toward the goal-line.
Granlund then put the Canucks ahead 2-1 at 5:23 of the period on a short-handed 2-on-1 rush where he took a nice feed from Eriksson before outwaiting Allen and emphatically burying his third of the season through the five-hole.
Baertschi made it 3-1 on the power play at 10:58 when he swept Eriksson’s rebound past Allen for his seventh, but Sobotka got the Blues back within one at 13:10 on a low shot that beat Nilsson after the Canucks failed to clear their zone.
Vancouver looked to have gone back ahead by two in the final minute of the period, but Thomas Vanek’s goal was waved off after it was judged a St. Louis player touched the puck with his hand on a delayed penalty seconds before it entered the net.
Boeser, who leads the Canucks in scoring with seven goals and 10 assists despite playing just 17 of Vancouver’s 20 games, got his team on the board at 11:44 of the first after winning consecutive puck battles down low against two Blues.
The 21-year-old rookie eventually wheeled out of the corner and fired a shot that went through the legs of St. Louis defenceman Carl Gunnarsson and shortside on Allen, with Bo Horvat providing a screen in front.
Vancouver had a couple of other opportunities to extend the lead before Edmundson hit the post at the other end.
St. Louis eventually tied the game with 1:26 left in the period when Parayko blasted a one-timer from a Stastny feed for his second of the campaign.
The goal came after what looked like a dubious Blues line change where as many as nine St. Louis skaters appeared to be on the ice in the moments right before Parayko’s blast.
The Canucks now head out on a six-game road trip that will see them visit Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, New Jersey, New York (against the Rangers and Islanders) and Nashville.