Canucks blanked for fourth time in 5 games
ST. LOUIS — For Brian Elliott, it was quality over quantity Friday night.
Elliott made 15 saves for his third straight shutout and the St. Louis Blues beat the Vancouver Canucks 4-0 to clinch a playoff spot and tie Dallas for the Central Division lead.
Robby Fabbri had a goal and an assist, Kyle Brodziak, Fabbri, Carl Gunnarsson and Joel Edmundson also scored, and Paul Stastny had two assists.
“We got better and better as it went on,” Blues coach Ken Hitchcock said. “I thought we were loose in the D-zone in the first period and everything tightened up. As the game went on, we got more and more engaged.”
Elliott hasn’t allowed a goal since returning from a lower-body injury March 19. He is 9-0-1 in his last 11 games, with a 1.61 goalsagainst average and a .950 save percentage during that span.
But he prefers to deflect the credit.
“I think the guys are feeling it,” Elliott said. “I’m kind of the beneficiary on the back end with how they’re playing.”
The Canucks are mired in a seven-game winless streak at 0-6-1, their longest streak since January and February in 2014. They have been shut out in four of their last five games.
“They’re big, they’re strong, they’re fast, they’re really well structured, their system is very good,” Canucks forward Alexandre Burrows said. “They made us look slow and not very good, so we’ve got to learn from it.”
Brodziak opened the scoring with a short-handed goal midway through the first period. Vancouver’s Linden Vey’s drop pass entering the St. Louis zone was intercepted by Scottie Upshall, who found Brodziak on an oddman rush for the tip in. It was Brodziak’s second short-handed goal of the season and the third for the Blues.
Fabbri made it 2-0 late in the first with his ninth point in his last nine games.
Elliott kept the Canucks off the board with a pad save on Jannik Hansen’s breakaway early in the first and a stick and glove save on Chris Higgins’ breakaway late in the period.
Dan Hamhuis almost got the Canucks on the board in the opening minute of the second period with a slap shot from the point, but a review of the play showed the puck hit both posts and never went in.
Gunnarsson made it 3-0 late in the second, and Edmundson scored his first career goal at 12:15 of the third.
Canucks goalie Jacob Markstrom made 33 saves.
Elliott said he isn’t ready to relax: We still have work to do and it’s just the first step in the mountain climb here.”