Blues’ season comes to an end with 6-2 loss to Canucks

EDMONTON, Alberta — The Vancouver Canucks sent St. Louis goalie Jordan Binnington to the bench early with three scores in a span of 6:03 in the second period, eliminating the defending champion Blues with a 6-2 victory in Game 6 of their first-round series on Friday night.

Blues coach Craig Berube put Binnington, the rookie star of last season’s out-of-nowhere run to the franchise’s first Stanley Cup, back in the net after winning two of the last three with Jake Allen. Binnington gave up four goals on 18 shots and was pulled for Allen at the 8:06 mark of the second period after Brock Boeser‘s power play goal gave the Canucks a commanding 4-0 lead.

Jay Beagle, Antoine Roussel and Troy Stecher also scored on Binnington, who went 0-5 in the Edmonton bubble, including three losses in this series. After Berube emptied the net with about eight minutes left, Tyler Motte tacked on two more goals after a two-goal effort in Game 5.

Brandon Sutter had three assists, Elias Pettersson had two assists and Jacob Markstrom made 34 saves for the Canucks, who are the only one of the seven Canadian clubs among the final eight teams still alive in the Stanley Cup playoffs. Vancouver advanced to play the Vegas Golden Knights in the second round.

Jaden Schwartz had two goals in the third period for the Blues, who went 2-6-1 in the Western Conference bubble while missing several key players due to injuries. They were 0-2-1 in seeding games.

The Canucks took an aggressive tack from the opening faceoff. The Blues were about to escape their zone after a heavy forecheck by Vancouver, but center Jacob de la Rose accidentally stepped on the puck as he tried to start a rush the other way.

Beagle snagged it, pivoted toward the slot and snapped a shot that clipped Binnington’s left shoulder on the way into the upper corner of the net just 3:45 into the game. The Canucks scored first in all but one game in the series.

NOTES

The Blues won three elimination games in the postseason last year, two against Dallas in the second round and one against Boston in the Stanley Cup Final, all with Binnington allowing one goal apiece. … This was the last of the eight first-round series to be decided, none of which went the seven-game distance. Five of them were done in five games. Only one of the eight qualifying series went to the five-game maximum.