Quinn Hughes scored twice and Thatcher Demko made 22 saves for his fourth career shutout as the Vancouver Canucks routed the visiting St. Louis Blues 5-0 on Friday.
J.T. Miller had a goal and two assists for the Canucks, who won their third straight game. Phillip Di Giuseppe and Ilya Mikheyev also scored, and Elias Pettersson had two assists.
Jordan Binnington made 30 saves for the Blues, who have alternated losses and wins through their first seven games of the season (3-3-1).
The Canucks dominated play from the start. They put the first 10 shots on goal in the game and got a near-miss from Sam Lafferty, who hit the right post on a breakaway.
Hughes finally put the Canucks up 1-0 by stepping in from the left point to fire a shot through heavy traffic 7:59 into the game.
Vancouver outshot St. Louis 19-3 in the first period, but the Blues escaped with the one-goal deficit by killing three penalties and part of a fourth before the break.
The Canucks continued their dominance in the second period while pushing the lead to 4-0.
Hughes struck again at the 5:48 mark of the second. He circled the top of the offensive zone, cut to the right faceoff dot on his backhand and attempted to make a cross-ice pass. However, the puck caromed off the skate of Blues forward Kevin Hayes into the net.
Di Giuseppe scored just 1:10 later, taking a pass from Tyler Myers and splitting the St. Louis defense to beat Binnington on a clean break-in.
Miller pushed the Canucks’ lead to 4-0 with a short-handed goal. Pettersson intercepted a St. Louis breakout pass and sent Miller in for a breakaway at 8:52.
Brayden Schenn got a breakaway for the Blues early in the third period, but Demko rejected him to maintain his shutout.
Mikheyev scored off the rush at the 6:35 mark of the third period to make it 5-0.
–Field Level Media
