Lankinen makes 36 saves for Vancouver; St. Louis drops 6th straight game
Canucks at Blues | Recap
ST. LOUIS — Kiefer Sherwood had a hat trick for the Vancouver Canucks in a 4-3 shootout win against the St. Louis Blues at Enterprise Center on Thursday.
Sherwood, who has scored five goals in two games against the Blues this season, is now tied for the League lead in goals with nine.
“I just take it one game at a time,” Sherwood said. “The games come fast and furious. Just rinse and repeat and we’ve got to try and build something here. We grinded it out, we mucked it out. We’ve been saying all along just pull the rope as a team. Just keep mucking along.”
Vancouver coach Adam Foote praised Sherwood’s worth ethic.
“He’s a motor,” Foote said. “He loves the game. What I love about him is, early in the season, he was good, and then got off real quick and his emotions were in play, and our four coaches did a good job just talking to him, going, ‘You have some fun here.’ … And you see, he’s on fire right now. … How he plays with that fire and now when they’re under control, he’s been very effective out there with his speed and his resilience.”
VAN@STL: Sherwood strikes thrice for second NHL hat trick
Jake DeBrusk scored the lone goal in the shootout for the Canucks in the third round.
Kevin Lankinen made 36 saves for the Canucks (6-6-0), who had lost four of five (1-4-0). Forward Brock Boeser left the game 33 seconds into the first period after getting hit by defenseman Elias Pettersson‘s shot from the left point in the midsection and did not return.
Foote said after the game he believes Boeser will play Saturday against the Minnesota Wild.
“It’s pretty incredible for me as a coach, and I’ve been here two-and-a-half years, maybe almost three years, and it’s the best team game I’ve seen since I’ve been here,” Foote said. “As far as being resilient, what our leadership group has done to allow the young guys to come in and feel comfortable, play with confidence, not get upset at them when they make those young mistakes, is impressive, because these young guys are giving us good minutes right now, and these guys up from the minors… To be that resilient is the key to build on.”
VAN@STL: Lankinen, DeBrusk come through for Canucks in shootout
Pius Suter had a goal and an assist, Dylan Holloway and Jimmy Snuggerud scored, and Jordan Binnington made 15 saves for the Blues (3-6-2), whose losing skid extended to six games (0-4-2). Cam Fowler and Oskar Sundqvist each had two assists.
“We’re not a real shots on goal evaluator as a staff, but we had a lot of point blank shots, we had a lot of traffic going to the net, we created a lot of chaos offensively,” St. Louis coach Jim Montgomery said. “Vancouver did a good job of hanging around, and then they got the lead. I love the way we fought back, but some of the goals we gave up, we’ve got to be smarter, we’ve got to continue to build in the right way. We did build tonight. It’s a step in the right direction. We need to win that game, it’s that simple.”
Holloway’s first goal in seven games gave the Blues a 1-0 lead at 3:23 of the first period, when the forward cut to the right circle after a Sundqvist pass and beat Lankinen on the short side, five-hole.
The Canucks tied it 1-1 at 13:08 when Sherwood batted in a puck from close range on the power play after the Blues goalie initially misplayed a puck toward the corner that was intercepted and put back toward the net.
Snuggerud’s wrist shot from the right dot gave the Blues a 2-1 lead 58 seconds into the second period after taking a cross-ice stretch pass from Fowler on the power play.
VAN@STL: Snuggerud reclaims Blues’ lead with PPG
The Canucks caught the Blues on a turnover and line change, and Sherwood’s breakaway goal at 10:42 tied it 2-2, beating Binnington on the backhand.
Sherwood gave the Canucks their first lead of the game 3-2 when his shot from the right circle beat Binnington at 7:04 of the third period.
Suter tied it 3-3 at 10:48 with a power-play goal, driving the net and putting in the rebound of Fowler’s wrist shot from the blue line.
Evander Kane had scored with 2:42 remaining that would have given the Canucks a 4-3 lead, but the Blues challenged for goalie interference.
“It was right down to the last minute,” Montgomery said. “We saw the overhead on the bench pretty quick. (Video coach) Elliott Mondou did a really good job saying, ‘I’m not sure right now.’ … I called the ref over to buy some more time, we had seen it enough that I was ready to challenge it and then Elliott came in and said, ‘Yes, challenge it.’ It was stick on stick and it went through his blocker side. … It really made us feel that we were 80 percent certain that it would get reversed.
“We didn’t get lucky with the goalie interference, but we can’t be giving up that many cracks from the middle of the ice with three minutes left. Guys that are out there have to value ending plays, protecting valuable ice a little more than what we are doing right now.”
NOTES: Sherwood’s only other NHL hat trick came on Dec. 16, 2024 with the Canucks in a 3-1 win over the Colorado Avalanche. … St. Louis captain Brayden Schenn played in his 600th game with the franchise. … Blues forward Dalibor Dvorsky, the No. 10 pick in the 2023 NHL Draft, played 16:36 and won nine of 13 face-offs in his season debut and third NHL game. … Vancouver defenseman Tom Willander, the No. 11 pick in the 2023 draft, played 19:09 and was a plus-1 in his second NHL game.
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