ST. LOUIS — Robert Thomas scored in his third straight game and had an assist for the St. Louis Blues in a 2-1 win against the Vancouver Canucks at Enterprise Center on Thursday.
Thomas, who was named to play in the 2024 NHL All-Star Game prior to puck drop, gave St. Louis a 2-1 lead at 8:03 of the third period when he scored from the inner edge of the right circle after taking a cross-ice pass from Scott Perunovich, who came off the bench on a line change.
“Good play by a lot of people,” Thomas said. “[Pavel Buchnevich] makes a great pass over to Scotty. He threw off their whole team. [Jordan Kyrou] drives by the net, goalie can’t see it and he overslides, and I just found it over the blocker. A lot of guys did a lot of good things for that goal.”
VAN@STL: Thomas, Perunovich team up to grab lead
Colton Parayko scored, and Jordan Binnington made 25 saves for the Blues (19-17-1), who had lost two straight.
“I think we played really solid game defensively,” Buchnevich said. “I think since second period, we take over the game and play a really good game, don’t give up many chances and got the ‘W.'”
Conor Garland scored, and Thatcher Demko made 30 saves for the Canucks (24-11-3), who were 8-1-2 in their previous 11 games.
“I thought we missed a glorious chance in the third,” Vancouver coach Rick Tocchet said. “We have four or five missed nets. We’ve got to hit the net on those shots.
“[St. Louis was] good through the neutral zone. I thought they hit the weak side a lot. But for the most part, like I said, we had our looks, we just need some guys to bear down on their shots.”
VAN@STL: Garland blasts in one-time opening goal
Garland gave Vancouver a 1-0 lead at 1:57 of the first period on a one-timer from the high slot after taking Teddy Blueger‘s pass from the right corner.
“We give up one goal, it’s not a big deal, we keep playing and keep playing our way,” Buchnevich said.
Parayko tied it 1-1 at 4:22 of the second period after taking a pass from Thomas and beating Demko with a wrist shot from the right circle.
“I’m just trying to find spots in the [offensive] zone and find holes that I can kind of jump into,” Parayko said. “I think the forwards have done a great job of kind of finding us [defensemen]. It’s been good, I guess, that way.”
Brock Boeser, Nils Hoglander and Elias Pettersson all had high-danger chances for Vancouver in the third period prior to Thomas putting St. Louis ahead.
“Obviously disappointed, 1-1 going into the third, you want to find a way to get points out of that,” Canucks captain Quinn Hughes said. “But we had some hard looks, just didn’t capitalize and execute a little bit better.”
NOTES: Thomas earned his first NHL All-Star selection; Hughes earned his second. … Thomas has nine points (four goals, five assists) over his past six games. … Hughes had a five-game point streak (one goal, six assists) end. … Parayko played his 614th NHL game to tie Barclay Plager for fourth place among Blues defensemen for games played in their history. … Blueger has 10 points (three goals, seven assists) the past nine games. … Perunovich has five assists in his past five games.
