Kyrou hat trick lifts Blues past Canucks in 4th straight winOzark Radio News

VANCOUVER — Jordan Kyrou scored his first NHL hat trick to assist the St. Louis Blues in their fourth straight win, 5-1 over the Vancouver Canucks on Monday at Rogers Arena.

Robert Thomas had one goal and one assist, Vladimir Tarasenko had three assists and Jordan Binnington made 33 saves for the Blues (16-15-1), who went 2-on-3 on the power play and have a five-game scoring streak (4- 0-1).

advertisement

Vancouver went 0-for-4 with man advantage.

“The PK was really good, and [the] Powerplay scored a few goals and that’s what makes the difference in the game,” said St. Louis coach Craig Berube. “Special teams are really important. Your special teams can win your game or lose a game.”

Ilya Mikheyev scored and Spencer Martin made 22 saves for the Canucks (13-14-3), who shuffled their four lines and three pair defenses but lost for the third time in four games, including a 5-1 loss to the Winnipeg Jets on Saturday .

They are 5-9-1 at home and five of those losses have come at 5-1.

“I’m running out of things to say here,” said Vancouver Bo Horvat. “Obviously another poor performance from us and this is the result.

“We play like a completely different team away from home. I don’t know if we try too hard at home to avoid getting booed out of our building every night. I think it’s turning us on right now and we’re just running around with our heads cut off a little too much and that’s the result again tonight. We’re tired of letting our fans and each other down at home.”

Kyrou gave the Blues a 1-0 lead at 10:25 of the second period with a wrist shot from the top of the right faceoff circle three seconds after a save from Martin on Nick Leddy (two assists).

“[Kyrou] has a fantastic shot,” said Leddy.

Mikheyev equalized with a breakaway at 12:24 to make it 1-1, but Nathan Walker scored his first goal of the season to restore the Blues’ lead 38 seconds later at 13:02 when he with a wrist shot parried the onslaught from the left diamond 2-1

“I was just trying to find some open ice on the weak side and Leddy made a great heads-up play, and [I] I just decided to grab it and rip it up,” Walker said. “It’s great whenever you get on the board and bring something in, but that was right after they scored, so obviously it took the momentum from them and gave it back to us.”

Thomas gave St. Louis a 3-1 lead with a power play goal at 6:50 p.m., a wrist shot over Martin’s glove from the right point.

“It’s like Groundhog Day,” said Canucks coach Bruce Boudreau. “We’re a fragile group and when they got second and third in quick succession it was like, ‘Oh no, here we go again.'”

Kyrou scored his second goal on a power play 1:07 in the third half with a shielded shot to make it 4-1, then completed the hat-trick at 9:19 into the open net after a cross pass from Thomas that had Martin stranded to make it 5-1 -Final.

Kyrou has six goals in three games and 10 points (six goals, four assists) in a four-game scoring streak.

“[Kyrou] been playing really good hockey for a while and the goals would come eventually,” Berube said. “He’s too good a player. Now he’s capitalizing, but his work ethic has been there all year.”

St. Louis has given up six goals during their four-game winning streak that began on Dec. 12 with a 1-0 overtime win over the Nashville Predators.

“Everybody’s playing well [defense]’ Leddy said. “The strikers who come back help that [defensemen] have good narrow gaps and that gets them the puck quicker too.”

REMARKS: Kyrou was hit hard by Canucks defenseman Kyle Burroughs at 1:31 left and was unavailable after the game due to treatment. … Canucks center Elias Pettersson, who leads them with 34 points (13 goals, 21 assists) in 29 games, missed his second straight game through illness. … Vancouver forward Brock Boeser returned after missing two games due to illness. He had five shots on target and played a season-high 20-18 on a redesigned topline with Mikheyev and Horvat. … Vancouver recalled Abbotsford goaltender Arturs Silovs from the American Hockey League in an emergency to back up Martin afterwards Collin Delias woman gave birth on Monday.