Make that four straight losses for the struggling Vancouver Canucks as they were shutout 3-0 by the visiting St. Louis Blues Saturday night.
The Canucks currently sit at 13th place in the Western Conference, just three points behind last place Edmonton.
On the night, the Canucks were badly outshot 50-19, with a relatively quiet night for Brian Elliot.
The guys made it a little easier on me, getting 50 shots on net, spending a lot of time in their zone, playing the type of game that wins us hockey games,” Elliott said. “I just tried to stay big, cover the ice, and let the guys do the rest of the work.”
Ryan Miller made 47 saves for the Canucks (27-32-12), who were shut out for the second straight game and have scored three goals while losing their past four.
The Blues got goals courtesy of Troy Brouwer, Vladimir Tarasenko, and Jaden Schwartz.
St. Louis was outshooting Vancouver 33-12 before Brouwer finally beat Miller on a nice power-play rush started by Stastny just inside the Canucks blue line at 16:18 of the second for his 15th on the year. Stastny dropped it to Robby Fabbri coming into the zone with speed, and he drew both Canucks defenders to him before passing across to Brouwer, who was left with an empty net after Miller stepped out to challenge Fabbri skating in alone.
Elliot preserved the lead making huge saves against Daniel Sedin, and Dan Hamhuis in the second, and then making another key one off of Henrik Sedin in the third period.
Tarasenko made it 2-0 shortly after the Blues killed the Canucks’ third power play, driving the net to shoot a rebound over Miller’s glove at 11:54 of the third. It was the 100th goal of Tarasenko’s NHL career, all with St. Louis; he is the 28th player in Blues history to reach that milestone.
To cap it off Schwartz would add an empty net goal at 18:54 of the third for his 7th of the year.
Note: It was the first time since 1998-99 that the Canucks have been shut out in consecutive games.
Up next: The Canucks look to get some revenge against the Winnipeg Jets as they travel to Winnipeg Tuesday with puck drop at 5:00pm.
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