O'Reilly, Blues hand Canucks loss to sweep season series

VANCOUVER — Ryan O’Reilly had a goal and an assist and the St. Louis Blues further dimmed the Canucks faint playoff hopes, beating Vancouver 4-3 on Wednesday.

Nick Leddy, Robert Thomas and Nathan Walker also scored for the Blues (37-20-9). David Perron added two assists.

Elias Pettersson scored twice for the Canucks (32-28-9), who were playing their fifth game in eight nights. Alex Chiasson also had a goal for the home side.

A 22-save performance earned St. Louis goalie Ville Husso his 18th win of the season. Thatcher Demko stopped 20-of-24 shots for Vancouver.

The Blues also beat the Canucks on Monday, and swept the three-game season series.

With 12 games to go in the regular season, Vancouver sits 10 points behind St. Louis, which holds the first wild card spot in the Western Conference.

Pettersson got the Canucks back within to a goal with less than five minutes on the game clock, snapping a shot past Husso from in tight for his second of the night.

Vancouver pressed for the equalizer, but couldn't get a shot past Husso.

The goalie made one of his biggest stops of the night with 70 seconds remaining, robbing Tanner Pearson with a glove save.

A blocked shot turned into a goal for the Blues midway through the third.

Canucks defenceman Travis Dermott went down to stop a shot from Mackenzie MacEachern but the puck bounced off him to Walker, who sent it soaring into the Vancouver net to make it 4-2.

St. Louis took a lead into the final frame thanks to O'Reilly's power-play goal.

Vancouver rookie Vasily Podkolzin was called for holding after he hauled down Brandon Saad on the rush and the Blues made the Canucks pay.

Perrson sent the puck to Brayden Schenn below the goal line and Schenn instantly dished it to O'Reilly at