Canucks knock out Blues in Game 6, win Western First Round series

Jacob Markstrom made 34 saves, and the Vancouver Canucks eliminated the defending champion St. Louis Blues from the Stanley Cup Playoffs with a 6-2 win in Game 6 of the Western Conference First Round series at Rogers Place in Edmonton on Friday.

Vancouver, the No. 5 seed, will play the No. 1 seed Vegas Golden Knights in the Western Conference Second Round. Game 1 of that best-of-7 series will be in Edmonton, the West hub city, on Sunday (10:30 p.m. ET; NBCSN, CBC, SN, TVAS).

"Obviously, it's a great feeling," Canucks forward Jay Beagle said. "That's why we're here. We played a good game for 60 minutes and a great series. We executed well and it always feels good when you play like that and it pays off and you win the series. We'll enjoy it tonight and come back and prepare for the next series."

WATCH: [All Blues vs. Canucks highlights]

This is the first time the Canucks have advanced past the first round since 2011, when they lost to the Boston Bruins in the Stanley Cup Final.

"It means a lot for our group and you know, for our organization as well," Markstrom said. "We got a great group of guys here, on and off the ice, everybody likes each other. It's so much fun to play hockey right now. … We've still got a lot of ways to go before anyone is satisfied, but it sure is a good feeling right now and it's a stepping stone, but we need to take a couple more steps."

Jordan Binnington, who was making his first start since Game 2, allowed four goals on 18 shots before being pulled in the second period for the Blues, the No. 4 seed. He was replaced by Jake Allen, who made five saves.

Binnington was 0-5-0 in the playoffs and allowed 19 goals in his final four starts.

"The decision, really, Jake played three in a row and obviously lost the third one, and [Binnington] has been a big-time goalie for us for a long time," Blues coach Craig Berube said. "He had some practice in there, worked on his game. It's a gut feeling. I go with him. He's done a lot for us, obviously won a championship with him. That was my decision. I think [Binnington] is like a lot of our whole team. At times we didn't play at the level we needed to play. That's just the bottom line."

Beagle gave Vancouver a 1-0 lead 3:45 into the first period with a shot from the slot off a giveaway, and Antoine Roussel made it 2-0 from the low slot at 2:09 of the second period following a turnover by Vince Dunn.

"It's the playoffs, you've got to have depth," Beagle said. "You got to have your third and fourth lines scoring, doing all the little things that we always talk about that we take pride in. ... When your third and fourth line are chipping in and also scoring, it makes it hard on the other team."

Troy Stecher's one-timer extended the lead to 3-0 at 6:49 of the second, and Brock Boeser chased Binnington with a one-timer from the left circle on the power play to make it 4-0 at 8:06.

"That's a great team we beat over there," Canucks coach Travis Green said. "[The Blues] won the Stanley Cup, (and) they almost had the same team back, so what our guys did, I'm proud of them. They came into the series expecting to win. They believed they could win, they were confident, and it was nice to get the job done tonight."

Jaden Schwartz made it 4-1 at 6:32 of the third period before Tyler Motte scored on a 2-on-1 to make it 5-1 at 13:19.

"You could see they were hyped up for this series," Blues captain Alex Pietrangelo said. "They're a good team. They've got good young players, veteran guys who really contribute, and they played us well. We've got to find a way to adapt to these teams. They'll have success. It's a good, young core over there."

Schwartz scored again with Allen pulled for an extra skater to make it 5-2 at 18:38, but Motte also scored his second into an empty net at 19:10 for the 6-2 final.

"It didn't seem like our energy was coming from everyone," Blues forward David Perron said. "It was tough. We had a couple bad bounces right away and in the back of our net. Honestly, I can't even think about this whole thing right now. That it's over is very frustrating, very disappointing."

The Blues had a 77-46 advantage in shot attempts but had 23 giveaways compared to 13 for Vancouver.

"At times we looked like a junior team out there the way we were turning the puck over, not playing the right way, and it came back to bite us," St. Louis center Ryan O'Reilly said. "Give them credit, they played smart. When they had momentum, they used it. We dug ourselves too big of a hole to get out of."

NOTES: Canucks forward Elias Pettersson had two assists and has 13 points (four goals, nine assists) in 10 playoff games, tied with Nathan MacKinnon of the Colorado Avalanche for the NHL lead. … Vancouver defenseman Quinn Hughes had an assist to become the fourth rookie defenseman to get 10 points (one goal, nine assists) in 10 postseason games or fewer. … This was the final game of the first round. It is the second time since 2002 that the first round did not have a Game 7 played (also 2017).