Canucks 3, Blues 2
Manny Malhotra scored to snap a tie just over one minute into the third period and Cory Schneider turned aside 28 shots as the Vancouver Canucks recorded a 3-2 triumph over the visiting St. Louis Blues on Thursday.
Mikael Samuelsson scored and defenseman Sami Salo netted his first goal of the season for Vancouver (39-14-9), which remained one point ahead of the Philadelphia Flyers (40-15-6) in the race for the Presidents' Trophy. The Flyers skated to a 4-3 overtime victory over the New York Islanders earlier in the evening.
With the game tied at 2-2, Malhotra netted his eighth of the season and second since Dec. 26 when he beat Ty Conklin just 65 seconds into the third period.
Schneider made the slim advantage stand up to collect his third win in four outings.
Samuelsson backhanded a shot past Conklin to open the scoring at 9:42 of the first period. Salo doubled the advantage just over seven minutes later with a blast from the right faceoff circle.
Defenseman Alex Pietrangelo and David Backes scored 74 seconds apart in the second period for St. Louis (27-24-9), which has dropped three in a row after a three-game winning streak.
Conklin finished with 24 saves to fall to 7-6-3 on the season.