Vancouver Canucks goaltender Thatcher Demko stopped 34 of 37 shots, then blanked the host St. Louis Blues in the shootout for a 4-3 victory Thursday night.
The Canucks rallied from a 3-1 deficit to force overtime and the shootout. Josh Leivo scored the only shootout goal, in the sixth round.
Bo Horvat, J.T. Miller and Micheal Ferland scored in regulation play for the Canucks, who won their fourth consecutive game.
Vladimir Tarasenko, Alex Pietrangelo and Robby Fabbri scored for the Blues, who have earned points in six of their seven games this season. Blues goaltender Jordan Binnington stopped 29 of 32 shots.
Forward Robert Thomas returned to the Blues lineup after missing five games with an upper-body injury. But rather than using him in his usual third-line slot, Blues coach Craig Berube inserted him on the fourth line and left Alexander Steen and Fabbri flanking center Tyler Bozak.
Fabbri banged home a rebound at the right post with 5:35 left in the first period to put the Blues up 1-0. That was his first regular-season goal since Nov. 23.
Ferland tied the score 1-1 just over two minutes into the second period. Binnington robbed him at the left post with a terrific sliding save, but Ferland scored later in the offensive sequence with a rebound conversion.
Just 43 seconds later, Pietrangelo scored on a three-on-two with a one-time blast off the left wing. And less than a minute after that, Tarasenko increased the lead to 3-1 by following up a Jaden Schwartz shot off the rush.
But the Canucks cut the lead to 3-2 after killing off a five-on-three Blues power play. Miller scored from the slot at 13:22 after teammate Tyler Motte rang a shot off the post off the rush.
That was Miller's fourth goal in the last three games.
The Canucks tied the score 3-3 with 7:55 left in the third period. During a wild goalmouth scramble at the end of five-on-three power play, Horvat backhanded the puck over the top of defenseman Colton Parayko -- who was sprawled along the goal line behind Binnington.
--Field Level Media
