Rookie Jimmy Snuggerud scored twice as the visiting St. Louis Blues defeated the Vancouver Canucks 5-2 Monday night.
Brayden Schenn tallied a goal and an assist for the Blues, who finished 2-0 on their brief Western Canada swing.
Nick Bjugstad and Jake Neighbours also scored for St. Louis, and Jordan Binnington stopped 27 shots.
Kiefer Sherwood scored twice, and Kevin Lankinen made 30 saves for the Canucks, who have lost two of three games to start the season.
The Blues took a 1-0 lead at the 8:48 mark of the first period. Snuggerud followed Mathieu Joseph’s shot off the left wing with a turnaround shot past Lankinen from the left circle.
St. Louis had multiple opportunities to extend its lead in the first period. But Justin Faulk couldn’t convert Robert Thomas’ pass as he cut toward the right post and Bjugstad failed to jam in a point-blank follow shot.
The play opened up during the second period with the Blues outshooting the Canucks 17-11 and outscoring them 3-2.
Schenn increased the St. Louis lead to 2-0 by scoring off the rush. Jordan Kyrou broke into the Vancouver zone, pulled up outside the left post and set up Schenn stepping in as the trailer.
Sherwood cut the margin to 2-1 by cutting across the crease to convert a pass from Aatu Raty.
Snuggerud followed Pavel Buchnevich to net to score on the power play to put St. Louis up 3-1. Sherwood answered by breaking out behind defenseman Cam Fowler for a short-handed goal to cut the margin to 3-2.
The Blues regained their two-goal margin with 6:15 left in the period by scoring off a 3-on-2 rush, with Bjugstad crashing the net to deflect in Walker’s shot.
Midway through the third period Binnington denied Conor Garland’s clean break-in with the man advantage to protect the 4-2 lead.
Neighbours iced the win with an empty-net goal with 2:13 left to play.
