Winger waves his winning wand
Two goals, crucial plays make for another great performance in St. Louis
ST. LOUIS — Back from the abyss, the St. Louis Blues have made an incredible and improbable twomonth run toward the Western Conference lead.
They wanted to go one better Thursday and make another statement that their 19-5-5 run under new coach Ken Hitchcock isn’t a mirage that will simply fade away.
Alex Burrows and the Vancouver Canucks made a better statement.
In a 3-2 overtime victory sealed with a Daniel Sedin power-play goal 46 seconds into the extra session, the Canucks head home with a 3-1-0 road trip record despite coughing up two shorthanded breakaways on one second-period power play against the Blues. That comes with playing four games in six days because they were far from flawless. But they were resilient.
It was the second goal of the game by Burrows — on a neat deflection of an Alex Edler point shot late in the second period — that drew the Canucks even at 2-2, just when it looked like the Blues would impose their aggressive will. And it was the tenaciousness of Burrows that forced David Backes to take a boarding minor when he drilled the winger into the boards with 19.9 seconds remaining in regulation time to set up the winner.
It wasn’t that surprising. Burrows has played some of his best games in this rink.
“Guys were kind of bugging me a little bit before the game, but it’s where I played my first game and my first game with the twins and got a series clincher [2009],” recalled Burrows.
“I feel good in this building and I felt I wasn’t very good the last few games personally. I thought I could be better against a team like this that’s very good defensively with a lot of big bodies who get in on the forecheck.”
For all their improved composure, the Blues got confused in overtime. When Roman Polak broke his stick on the 4-on-3 power play, T.J. Oshie got confused and instead of staying in his lane to block a Henrik Sedin pass, he tried to get his stick to the blueliner. The seam allowed the cross-ice pass and Daniel Sedin’s winning slapper past goaltender Brian Elliott.
“That’s on us, not on him,” said Hitchcock, who defended Oshie but also disputed the Backes penalty in calling it a hockey play.
“We have a philosophy with a broken stick. We do it on a 5-on-4 and did it in Montreal and got away with it and we shouldn’t have done it on a 4-on-3.”
The end result also covered a pair of shorthanded gaffes late in the second period after Burrows made it 2-2. Dan Hamhuis lost the puck at the St. Louis blueline and it forced Roberto Luongo to make a glove save. Oshie was then stopped as he attempted a forehand deke after the Canucks coughed up the puck in the Blues zone.
“You don’t want to be giving up those kind of chances, especially towards the end of the period,” said Luongo, who finished with 31 saves.
“On the first one, we had some good back pressure and I was able to challenge more and he [Oshie] kind of lost the puck on the second one at the last second. We got out of that unharmed.”
It took the Canucks less than three minutes to open the scoring for the 10th straight game and 14 of the last 15 outings. As if on cue, Burrows continued with his fondness for this arena when Daniel Sedin chopped the puck to the winger at the side of the net and he buried it short side.
Burrows also scored here in a 3-2 loss on Nov. 4 and played his first NHL game in this arena on Jan. 2, 2006. He played on a line with the Sedins for the first time in a comeback victory on Feb. 10, 2009 and scored the overtime winner in a firstround playoff series sweep on April 11, 2009.
However, the Blues did what they do best after Burrows connected in the first period. They pressured the Canucks on the forecheck and needed less than a minute to even the count.
Cody Hodgson coughed up the puck behind the net and Jason Arnott easily scored from the slot. The Blues then also got the best of Alexander Sulzer as the defenceman was rocked at centre ice by a Backes check, and then left briefly to be examined after being struck by a Carlo Colaiacovo point shot.
“I’m not sure if there’s an overall statement,” Canucks coach Alain Vigneault said.
“Four games in six nights and not our best hockey. This was a real challenging road trip for us and we might be a bit off, but we’ve had strong goaltending and got power-play goals at right time.”
OF NOTE — Aaron Rome played 15:57 after missing a dozen games with a broken thumb and with Sulzer earning the confidence of Vigneault, it was Keith Ballard who sat out on the back end.