St. Louis Blues' Robert Thomas (18) stickhandles past Vancouver Canucks' Quinn Hughes (43) during the first period of an NHL hockey game in Vancouver, on Monday, December 19, 2022. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Darryl Dyck
VANCOUVER – Jordan Kyrou scored his first career hat trick and collected an assist as the St. Louis Blues broke open a close game with three second-period goals and added to the Vancouver Canucks’ home woes with a 5-1 NHL win Monday night.
Robert Thomas, with a power-play goal and assist, and Nathan Walker with his first of the season, also scored for the Blues (16-15-1) who won their fourth straight and for the fifth time in seven games. Vladimir Tarasenko had three assists and Nicky Leddy a pair.
Ilya Mikheyev scored for the Canucks (13-15-3) who lost their third consecutive game at Rogers Arena. The Canucks are 5-9-1 at home. Vancouver has lost by a 5-1 score at home five times this season.
Blues goaltender Jordan Binnington stopped 33 shots. Canuck goalie Spencer Martin made 22 saves.
Kyrou scored twice in the third period. He has six goals in three games and 10 points in the last four.
Kyrou put the Blues ahead 4-1 on a power play just 67 seconds into the third period with a shot through traffic. He made it 5-1 with a wrist shot at 9:19.
The teams combined for three goals in 2:37 of the second period as the Blues built a 3-1 lead.
Kyrou opened the scoring at 10:25. Martin stopped a hard shot from Leddy, who collected his own rebound and passed it to Kyrou who scored his 14th of the season.
The Canucks tied the game 99 seconds later after Mikheyev took a pass from defenceman Quinn Hughes, outskated the Blues’ defence, then deked Binnington to stuff the puck in the far corner.
Walker made it 2-1 St. Louis at 13:02 on a shot from the hash marks that sailed over Martin’s glove.
Thomas gave the Blues a two-goal lead on a power play at 18:50 when he wired a pass from Pavel Buchnevich from the faceoff circle into the top corner of the net.
The first period was scoreless with both goaltenders making big stops. Binnington stopped Brock Boeser on a backdoor play on a power play early in the period, while Martin got in front of a point shot from Alexey Toropchenko through traffic.
NOTES
Canadian soccer hero Christine Sinclair of Burnaby, B.C., dropped the puck in a ceremonial opening faceoff. “¦ Boeser returned to the Vancouver lineup after missing two games with a non-COVID illness. “¦ Elias Pettersson, who leads the Canucks with 34 points and is second with 13 goals, missed his second game with a non-COVID illness. “¦ Vancouver was outscored 8-1 in their previous two home losses. … The Canucks called up goaltender Artus Silvos from their Abbotsford AHL team when Collin Delia’s wife gave birth to their second child Monday. “¦ It was a tough first period for Blues’ defenceman Colton Parayko who was called for two penalties in the opening 5:08. “¦ The line of Ivan Barbashev, Thomas and Kyrou combined for four of the Blues’ six even-strength goals in wins over Edmonton and Calgary. “¦ There was plenty of family in the stands to see Luke Schenn of the Canucks face brother Brayden of the Blues.
UP NEXT
The Canucks end a three-game home stand Thursday against the Seattle Kraken then play the Oilers in Edmonton on Friday. The Blues’ five-game road trip continues with games in Seattle Tuesday and Las Vegas Friday.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Dec. 19, 2022.
