Blues sweep Canucks; Jets hit 100
ST. LOUIS — It had been a year and two days since Patrik Berglund turned in a multi-goal game for the St. Louis Blues. He delivered again Friday night when his team needed it.
Berglund scored twice and the surging Blues beat the Vancouver Canucks 4-1 for their fourth consecutive victory.
The Blues (41-28-5, 87 points) moved within a point of idle Colorado for the second wild-card spot in the Western Conference. Both teams have played 74 games.
“It feels really good to score goals always. But at this time of year, it doesn’t matter who scores. We just need all the points that we can get here to get into the playoffs,” Berglund said.
Vladimir Tarasenko and Dmitrij Jaskin also scored for St. Louis. Jake Allen made 19 saves in his eighth straight start as the Blues won for the sixth time in seven games.
Sam Gagner scored for Vancouver, which has lost eight of nine. Anders Nilsson stopped 21 shots.
The Blues swept the season series and have won their last five games against the Canucks.
Tarasenko extended the lead to 3-1 just 14 seconds into the third period, slipping Jaden Schwartz’s pass between Nilsson’s legs. Tarasenko missed the previous two games with an upper-body injury.
“Of course, it’s easier to play when it’s 3-1, but you’ve still got like 19 minutes to play and I think we played a really good third period,” Tarasenko said.
Jaskin’s sixth goal of the season with 2:29 left sealed it for St. Louis.
Berglund gave the Blues a 1-0 lead 40 seconds into the game, beating Nilsson with a backhand over his right shoulder. It was Berglund’s second goal in three games. “Great play [by Alex Pietrangelo],” Berglund said. “I came in full speed and I figured I’d get it on the net real quick and he wasn’t ready, so it was a good start.”
Allen made the early goal stand up as the Blues were outshot 12-4 in the first period. Allen made four saves during a 45-second stretch of sustained pressure midway through the period as St. Louis failed to register a shot on goal for the final 13:09 of the opening frame.
Berglund made it 2-0 with a short-handed goal at 4:46 of the second, cashing in on a strong effort by Kyle Brodziak to chip the puck out and spring Berglund on an odd-man rush. It was just the fifth short-handed goal this season for St. Louis and the ninth allowed by Vancouver.
Gagner snapped a 25-game goal drought, firing in a one-timer off a pass from Henrik Sedin with 5:13 left in the second to cut the Canucks’ deficit to 2-1. It was the 150th goal of his career.
“We battled hard tonight,” Gagner said. “We just couldn’t find a way to generate enough the second half of the game and it’s one of those things, you learn from it and move on.” Jets 3, Ducks 2 (OT) WINNIPEG — Kyle Connor scored 3:16 into overtime as the Winnipeg Jets edged the Anaheim Ducks 3-2 and set a franchise record for points in a season,
It marked the second straight game the rookie scored the overtime winner. Connor had both goals in Winnipeg’s 2-1 win over Los Angeles on Tuesday.
Mark Scheifele assisted on Connor’s shot that beat goalie John Gibson. He finished with a goal and two assists.
Winnipeg (45-19-10) earned its fourth straight win and reached the 100-point plateau for the first time. The Jets registered 99 points in 2014-15 before being swept in the first round of the playoffs by the Ducks.
Ducks forward Nick Ritchie had tied the game at 2-2 at 10:17 of the third period. Canadiens 3, Sabres 0 BUFFALO, N.Y. — Antti Niemi stopped 35 shots for his first shutout in 27 months, and the Montreal Canadiens snapped a seven-game road skid with a 3-0 win over the Buffalo Sabres.
Artturi Lehkonen scored the go-ahead goal by converting a puck that bounced off the end boards 4:56 into the second period. Former Sabres forward Paul Byron and Brendan Gallagher then scored empty-net goals 22 seconds apart in the final 1:15 to seal the win.
Montreal had lost its past four overall and gone 0-5-2 on the road since a 6-3 win at the New York Islanders on March 2.
Niemi improved to 6-8-4 since being claimed by Montreal after being waived by Florida in midNovember. The shutout was the 36th of his career.