The St. Louis Blues are still looking for a first official bubble win in Edmonton.
After being held up in round robin play in the West, the reigning Stanley Cup champions fell 5-2 in Game 1 of their series ahead of the Vancouver Canucks.
The Canucks set the tone for the series on a power play. Bo Horvat put the finishing touches to a great collective play that began when Elias Pettersson prevented the record from leaving Blues territory. Horvat’s shot beat Jordan Binnington with speed to open the scoring.
The Blues also responded in a power play. David Perron let go of a receiving throw which made the red light flicker.
The indiscipline of the Blues cost them dearly in this first duel of the series. While another St. Louis player was in the dungeon, Pettersson jumped on the disc in the slot to give the Canucks a lead halfway through the game.
Moments later, a first goal in this confrontation was scored evenly. Jaden Schwartz came out of the blocks strong on the face-off to beat defenders with speed. He served a nice feint to Jacob Markstrom to level the score.
Jordan Binnington did not help his teammates early in the third. He misjudged Troy Stecher’s shot and Stecher put the Canucks in charge. Horvat then dazzled with a great individual maneuver to score his second goal of the game.
JT Miller delivered the final blow in the final minute of play during another power play for Vancouver.
The difficult night for Binnington ended with five goals allowed on 22 shots. For his part, Markstrom turned away 29 pucks.
The Blues lost in their three games for positioning in the standings for the playoffs. They bowed their spine in a shootout in front of the Dallas Stars in their last duel to ultimately end up against the Canucks.
The Canadian roster needed four games to eliminate the Minnesota Wild in the qualifying round.
The second game of the series will be played on Friday.
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