Philip Broberg scored off a rush in overtime to lift the St. Louis Blues to a 4-3 victory over the visiting Vancouver Canucks on Thursday.
The Blues (35-28-7, 77 points) are a point ahead of the Canucks (32-25-12, 76 points) in the race for the final Western Conference wild-card position. Vancouver has played one fewer game than St. Louis.
Tyler Tucker and Dylan Holloway each had a goal and an assist for the Blues, who won their fourth straight game and improved to 10-2-2 since the 4 Nations Face-Off. Zack Bolduc also scored, Brayden Schenn had two assists, and Blues goaltender Jordan Binnington made 15 saves.
Brock Boeser scored twice and Kiefer Sherwood also tallied for the Canucks, who are 6-7-1 since the 4 Nations break. Vancouver’s Elias Pettersson notched two assists, and Kevin Lankinen stopped 25 shots.
With Lankinen off the ice for an extra attacker, Boeser tied the game with four seconds left in regulation on a shot from the right faceoff dot.
The Blues tilted the ice against the Canucks early in the first period while building a 12-3 edge in shots. Nathan Walker got a point-blank rebound opportunity, Robert Thomas fired a shot from the slot off a Jake Neighbours pass, then Thomas got another point-blank opportunity.
However, Lankinen made the stops to keep the game scoreless.
The Canucks picked up their pressure midway through the second period and produced eight straight shot attempts. Nils Aman rang a shot off the crossbar during that flurry.
The Blues finally broke through when Bolduc fired a turnaround shot from the right point that deflected off Vancouver defenseman Quinn Hughes at 15:47 of the middle period.
Sherwood tied the game 1-1 with a shot from high in the left circle 71 seconds into the third period. Boeser put the Canucks up 2-1 at 6:35 with a shot from nearly the same spot.
Tucker tied the game 2-2 with a blast from the center point at 9:28, and Holloway put the Blues up 3-2 just 24 seconds later by scoring on a rush off Jordan Kyrou’s pass.
–Field Level Media