ST. LOUIS — Vladimir Tarasenko scored twice and had an assist to reach 500 NHL points for the St. Louis Blues in a 4-1 win against the Vancouver Canucks at Enterprise Center on Monday.
“It’s a great accomplishment,” St. Louis coach Craig Berube said. “He’s been a very good player for quite a while. He’s continuing to be a good player. He’s actually a more well-rounded player than when I first got here, seeing him now.
“His opportunities this year he’s had to score goals, he could at least have 30 because he gets a lot of good slot shots.”
Ville Husso made 35 saves for the Blues (36-20-9), who moved into third place in the Central Division, one point ahead of the Nashville Predators and three points behind the Minnesota Wild for second.
St. Louis had lost five of six and nine of its past 12.
Brad Hunt scored, and Jaroslav Halak made 25 saves for the Canucks (32-27-9), who went 2-1-1 on a four-game road trip and remain three points behind the Vegas Golden Knights for the second wild card into the Stanley Cup Playoffs from the Western Conference.
“I don’t think we were very good tonight,” Vancouver coach Bruce Boudreau said. “We were really flat in the first period. We got behind [by] two. That gave them life. We played better in the second period but we didn’t get rewarded for it. When they score on the first shift of the third period, that was it. We didn’t have enough guys play with a sense of urgency that you need at this time of the season. I just didn’t think we were in it tonight at all.”
The teams play again Wednesday in Vancouver.
Marco Scandella gave the Blues a 1-0 lead at 6:37 of the first period when he crashed the net and tapped in a shot by Tarasenko that went up and over Halak. It was his second goal of the season.
“I kind of put my whole body in front of it,” Scandella said. “I saw it in the air and I knew I was getting pushed from behind. So I was in a good spot to kind of push it in. Not quite sure.”
David Perron made it 2-0 at 14:02 off a 2-on-1 with Ivan Barbashev, who stick-checked and stole the puck from Canucks forward Conor Garland.
“If you score first in the game, you’ve got a good feel going, you feed off that,” Berube said. “It was nice getting that 2-0 lead. After we killed that penalty in the second, I wish we would have kind of got going the other way a little bit more than we did.”
Husso was at his best in the second period, when he made 17 saves.
“As a goalie, you want to make those saves and help the team at good times,” Husso said. “And today, I made a couple good saves in the second period and kept the game 2-0, and then we score right away in third. That was like pretty much game over.”
Tarasenko scored 49 seconds into the third period to make it 3-0, knocking in his own rebound after Halak had made the initial save.
“I set the tone there in the third with a missed assignment,” Canucks center J.T. Miller said. “We got off on the wrong foot there at the start of the third period. I actually had a good play before that. A good stick on [Tarasenko]. I just puck-watched for one second. I knew he was over there. I really did. I was just being stubborn. [Pavel] Buchnevich made a really nice pass over there to him. All it takes is one second with good players. You watch the puck a little too long and then it’s in the back of the net.”
Hunt scored at 2:13 to make it 3-1, shooting short side on Husso with a wrist shot from the right circle on a 2-on-1
Tarasenko shot into an empty net at 17:47 for the 4-1 final.
NOTES: Tarasenko has scored 241 goals and has 259 assists for his 500 points in 589 NHL games. … St. Louis has won 12 of its past 17 regular-season games (12-3-2) against Vancouver, including six of eight (6-1-1) at Enterprise Center dating to Oct. 16, 2015. … Miller had a four-game point streak end (four goals, three assists). … Canucks captain Bo Horvat‘s four-game goal streak ended. … Perron has scored 14 goals in his past 13 games and 22 points (14 goals, eight assists) his past 16 games. His 12 goals in March are the second-most in a calendar month this season, behind Edmonton Oilers forward Leon Draisaitl, who scored 15 in November.
