For the third straight game, the Canucks played more than 60 minutes.
And for the third straight game, they came out victorious.
A season-long road trip ended with a Ryan Kesler overtime goal, as Vancouver beat the St. Louis Blues 3-2.
The win moves Vancouver to 8-4-1 on the season, while the Blues move to 5-1-2.
In their third game in four games, finishing off a seven game road trip, and starting backup goaltender Eddie Lack, the Canucks could have been excused for a lackluster effort.
Instead, they started off strong, held on against an energetic Blues team that hadn’t played in a week, and finished 5-1-1 on the trip, giving them a tie for the lead in the Pacific Division with the San Jose Sharks.
It was a defensive game for both teams, with neither one managing more than 10 shots in a period. The Canucks spent much of the second and third periods in their own zone. Meanwhile, St. Louis was playing their first game in a week.
But Vancouver started the game off strong, with Chris Higgins getting an opportune deflection for a goal at 17:11 of the first period, and Ryan Kesler making it 2-0 at 9:34 of the second with a wrister from the slot.
St. Louis recovered though, with a goal from Alex Steen with just seven seconds left in the second period, followed by a marker from Vladimir Sobotka 1:38 into the third period to tie the game up.
Eddie Lack made 22 saves for Vancouver, while Jaroslav Halak made 18 for St. Louis. The two goals for Kesler give him a team-leading seven – the next closest Canuck has four.
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