ST. LOUIS — Aaron Volpatti scored his first career goal and Ryan Kesler had his fourth in three games as the surging Vancouver Canucks beat the St. Louis Blues 3-1 on Monday night.
Jeff Tambellini scored a late power-play goal, Mikael Samuelsson had two assists and Roberto Luongo stopped 15 shots to earn his 13th career victory against the Blues in 22 games. Vancouver improved to 9-1-1 in its last 11 games.
The Canucks’ victory gave them 42 points and pulled them into a first-place tie in the Northwest Division with the Avalanche.
Alex Steen scored for the Blues, his third goal in two games this season against the Canucks. St. Louis has one win in its last five games.
Volpatti took advantage of a Blues turnover in their zone. Tanner Glass checked defenseman Alex Pietrangelo in the left corner to allow Alex Bolduc to center a puck to Volpatti, who beat Jaroslav Halak 7:12 into the second period for the first goal of the game.
Kesler made it 2-0 after the Canucks broke out on a 2-on-1 play, with Kesler keeping the puck and snapping a shot past Halak at 9:16 of the second.
The Blues, who were outshot 20-10 through two periods, finally got an opportunity. Steen cashed in on a backhander from the slot with 2:03 to play in the second to slice Vancouver’s lead to 2-1.
The Canucks, who came in with the third-ranked power play in the NHL, had four opportunities — including a 35-second stretch of 5-on-3 — to break a scoreless tie in the first period, but were denied by the Blues each time.
Vancouver outshot St. Louis 12-3 in the opening 20 minutes.
Tambellini scored with 1:37 left for a 3-1 lead.
