Snuggerud scores twice for 1st multigoal game, Blues defeat Canucks

VANCOUVER -- Jimmy Snuggerud scored twice for his first multigoal game in the NHL, and the St. Louis Blues defeated the Vancouver Canucks 5-2 at Rogers Arena on Monday.

It was the 10th career regular-season game for Snuggerud, who was selected in the first round (No. 23) of the 2022 NHL Draft. The 21-year-old forward played seven games late last season after leaving the University of Minnesota, and seven more in the Stanley Cup Playoffs. He started this season on the Blues top line before being dropped to the third in Vancouver.

Snuggerud responded with his best performance so far this season.

“I thought he was the best player on the ice for us tonight,” Brayden Schenn said.

Schenn had a goal and assist, Jake Neighbours scored and Jordan Binnington made 27 saves for the Blues (2-1-0), who swept a two-game Western Canada road trip after losing their season opener at home 5-0 to the Minnesota Wild on Thursday.

“Our best one yet,” Schenn said. “We're slowly making adjustments. The second half of the game [at the Calgary Flames on Saturday], we got a little bit of emotion going, played a little bit harder, got results with it, and we carried that into tonight. Obviously, we're going to continue to get better, make adjustments, but I like our response after a tough home opener.”

Kiefer Sherwood scored twice, and Kevin Lankinen made 30 saves in his first start of the season for the Canucks (1-2-0), who have lost two in a row entering a five-game road trip.

“We have a good group here,” Sherwood said. “It's obviously not the ideal start, but it'll prove our character. We have a lot of good leaders in here and a lot of world-class talent, so we’ve just got to put our head down and work and be ready from puck drop.”

Snuggerud put the Blues ahead 1-0 at 8:48 of the first period, spinning around at the bottom-left hash mark onto a chip pass from Pius Suter, who was playing his first game against his old team, and firing a short-side wrist shot up over the blocker of Lankinen.

“Tried to get around it and put in the top corner,” Snuggerud said.

Schenn extended it to 2-0 at 2:10 of the second period with a high-glove one-timer from the slot after Jordan Kyrou pulled up on a partial breakaway and spotted him unchecked on what turned into a 3-on-3 rush.

“You can't quit on the play,” Schenn said. “When you play with high-end players like a Jordan Kyrou, if he doesn't like what he's seeing on the breakaway and gets pushed to his backhand and knows he can't score, he's able make a second play and great pass by him."

Sherwood cut it to 2-1 at 5:33, chipping a backhand past Binnington from the slot, but Snuggerud made it 3-1 on the power play at 8:13 into an open net to Lankinen’s left after Pavel Buchnevich lost the puck trying to attack from the other side.

It was the first goal Vancouver has allowed on the penalty kill this season after going 9-for-9 in its first two games.

“He was all over pucks,” St. Louis coach Jim Montgomery said of Snuggerud. “He was tenacious on pucks, hounding them, and then obviously that release is pretty special on the first goal, and the second goal is where you score goals, right around the net.”

Sherwood’s second goal of the game at 12:12 cut it to 3-2 on a short-handed breakaway after deking to his forehand, but the Blues again answered quickly to restore the lead.

Nick Bjugstad made it 4-2 on a 3-on-2 rush at 13:45, driving the net and deflecting a Nathan Walker one-timer of a cross-ice pass from Alexandre Texier low past Lankinen.

“That was a really good play,” Montgomery said. “Good job in the D-zone, we broke out 3-on-2 and I just love the way he drove the middle. It's a big part of what we need to do more of to be a better offensive team and that opened up Walker for the one-timer from ‘Tex.’”

Neighbours scored into an empty net, his third goal in the past two games, after blocking a Quinn Hughes slap shot in his own zone at 17:47 of the third period for the 5-2 final.

“They're a good team, and they're just making a lot of plays and we probably weren't matching that,” said Hughes, who has one assist in three games as the Canucks struggled to generate offense in the past two. “If I had the answer, I would have capitalized on that and had a goal and assist. But I don’t know.”

NOTES: St. Louis forward Alexey Toropchenko missed both games on the road trip with upper and lower-body soreness after playing 10:43 in the season opener. … St. Louis was 1-for-3 on the power play. The Canucks were 0-for-1 and are now 0-for-7 to start the season. … Vancouver defenseman Victor Mancini played 15:24 in his season debut with Derek Forbort out for “maintenance,” according to Foote. … Sherwood’s first goal was his 100th point in the NHL. He has 101 (46 goals, 55 assists) in 268 games.