Canucks on brink of missing playoffs after loss to Blues

Magnus Paajarvi has used a newfound wave of confidence to solidify his spot in the lineup and help the St. Louis Blues go on a strong run.

Paajarvi scored twice to lead the Blues to a 4-1 win over the Vancouver Canucks on Thursday night. St. Louis has won 14 of 20 since Feb. 7 after Paajarvi was recalled from Chicago of the AHL.

"My main thing is the confidence for me," Paajarvi said. "I try to do things and drive the net with or without the puck and things happen. I got a couple goals here and there. That's always nice for the confidence as well."

Kyle Brodziak and Alex Pietrangelo also scored for the Blues who won their fourth straight to give them nine wins in their last 10. Jake Allen made 27 saves for his seventh win in eight starts while allowing just nine goals in the stretch.

"We're finding ways to win, Jake's playing great," Pietrangelo said "We're going to need more of that this time of year. It's not always going to be the way that you want. We're not really looking at the streaks that we're on. We're just kind of playing every game taking it day by day."

Henrik Sedin scored for the Canucks who have lost seven of their last eight to fall to 11-22-3 on the road. Ryan Miller stopped 30 shots.

Brodziak snapped an 11 game goal-scoring drought when he roofed a slap shot by Miller late in the second period for his eighth goal of the season to put the Blues up 2-1.

"It was a good play," Brodziak said. "The shift before us hemmed them in a bit, gave them some trouble, and they came out and turned it over right after a change. (Pietrangelo) made a good play, dished it off, drove through the net, and opened up a lane."

Vancouver was on the power play for 3:51 spanning from the end of the second period into the third, but the Canucks failed to score on two shots on goal with the extended man-advantage.

"I thought we had a chance on the power play to start the third," Canucks coach Willie Desjardins said. "We needed to capitalize on the power play and we didn't to start the third."

Paajarvi added some insurance when he scored his second of the game and eighth of the season midway through the third period. That gave him the second multi-goal game of his career and first since Feb. 5, 2011, with Edmonton.

Vancouver coach Willie Desjardins challenged the goal saying that the Blues were offside entering the zone but the video replay proved inconclusive.

"We got to see on the bench, and the only way it could not of been off side was if the puck was in our end and came out on the blue line," Sedin said. "They say they can't see the puck on their screen. I've got a tough time seeing how you can't follow the puck where it's coming from. But again they're making the calls. I don't think that's where we lose the game."

Pietrangelo capped the scoring with an empty net goal at 2 1/2 minutes left.

Sedin opened the scoring for Vancouver when he scored his 15th of the season.

Paajarvi tied the game when he pushed his own rebound past Miller.