In Edmonton, the St Louis Blues were bounced from the Stanley Cup Playoffs in a dismal showing. Jacob Markstrom made 34 saves in a 6-2 win for the Vancouver Canucks in Game 6.
“It means a lot for our group and you know, for our organization as well,” Markstrom said. “We got a great group of guys here, on and off the ice, everybody likes each other. It’s so much fun to play hockey right now. … We’ve still got a lot of ways to go before anyone is satisfied, but it sure is a good feeling right now and it’s a stepping stone, but we need to take a couple more steps.”
Jay Beagle staked the Canucks to a 1-0 lead in the first period and then the house fell in on the Blues when Vancouver built on the lead for a 4-0 cushion in the second period.
“Obviously, it’s a great feeling,” Beagle said. “That’s why we’re here. We played a good game for 60 minutes and a great series. We executed well and it always feels good when you play like that and it pays off and you win the series. We’ll enjoy it tonight and come back and prepare for the next series.”
Antoine Roussel, Troy Stecher and Brock Boeser added to Beagle’s marker.
“It’s the playoffs, you’ve got to have depth,” Beagle said. “You got to have your third and fourth lines scoring, doing all the little things that we always talk about that we take pride in. … When your third and fourth line are chipping in and also scoring, it makes it hard on the other team.”
Jaden Schwartz got one back for the Blues, with the first of his two goals on the night, at 6″32 of the third period in the third period but the Canucks’ Tyler Motte replied to make it 5-1 at 13:19.
“You could see they were hyped up for this series,” the Blues’ Alex Pietrangelo said. “They’re a good team. They’ve got good young players, veteran guys who really contribute, and they played us well. We’ve got to find a way to adapt to these teams. They’ll have success. It’s a good, young core over there.”
Motte closed out the scoring with a late empty net goal, his second goal of the game.
“That’s a great team we beat over there,” Canucks head coach Travis Green said. “[The Blues] won the Stanley Cup, (and) they almost had the same team back, so what our guys did, I’m proud of them. They came into the series expecting to win. They believed they could win, they were confident, and it was nice to get the job done tonight.”
[WATCH:Â All Blues vs. Canucks highlights]
Jordan Binnington got the start for the Blues and made 14 saves, yielding four goals; he was given the hook in the second period.
“The decision, really, Jake played three in a row and obviously lost the third one, and [Binnington] has been a big-time goalie for us for a long time,” Blues head coach Craig Berube said. “He had some practice in there, worked on his game. It’s a gut feeling. I go with him. He’s done a lot for us, obviously won a championship with him. That was my decision. I think [Binnington] is like a lot of our whole team. At times we didn’t play at the level we needed to play. That’s just the bottom line.”
Jake Allen made five saves in relief.
“At times we looked like a junior team out there the way we were turning the puck over, not playing the right way, and it came back to bite us,” St. Louis’ Ryan O’Reilly said. “Give them credit, they played smart. When they had momentum, they used it. We dug ourselves too big of a hole to get out of.”
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