EDMONTON — Vancouver captain Bo Horvat twice as the Canucks defeated the defending Stanley Cup champion St. Louis Blues 5-2 Wednesday in their first-round opener.

J.T. Miller, Elias Pettersson and Troy Stecher also scored for Vancouver while David Perron and Jaden Schwartz replied for St. Louis. Vancouver has a 1-0 lead in the best-of-seven series. Game 2 is set for Friday night.

Horvat now has four goals in return to play action while rookie teammate Quinn Hughes logged an assist to reach seven points (one goal, six helpers) in five games.

Jacob Markstrom made 29 stops for the win.

The Canucks were making their first playoff appearance since 2015, having defeated the Minnesota Wild in the qualifying round.

They never trailed in the game.

The teams swapped mirror-image power-play goals in the first period.

Horvat opened the scoring about five minutes in when he one-timed a Hughes’ feed from the top of the left face-off circle past St. Louis goalie Jordan Binnington.

St. Louis replied with under four minutes to go. Perron half-slapped a pass from Brayden Schenn from the top of the right circle high over the glove of Markstrom.

Vancouver regained the lead on the power play midway through the second period. Pettersson whipped the puck under the bar off a goalmouth scramble for his second goal in return to play.

The Blues tied it just over a minute later when Schwartz tipped the puck past pinching Canuck defenceman Chris Tanev at the Blues blue line, then barrelled in on a breakaway and beat Markstrom with a nifty backhander through the five hole.

Vancouver took the lead for good almost six minutes into the third. Stecher raced down the right wing and wired a slapshot from the face-off circle under Binnington’s arm for his first of the post-season.

Then Horvat, entering the Blues zone with speed, turned Blues defenceman Vince Dunn inside out, raced in and fired a wrist shot past Binnington on the blocker side.

Miller added the fifth goal on the power play with less than 40 seconds to play.

The Canucks are winning with a mix of veterans and playoff newbies.

Pettersson, Brock Boeser, Jake Virtanen, Tyler Motte, Hughes, Stecher, Zack MacEwen, and Markstrom were regulars playing in their first playoff game (although technically they have playoff experience as the qualifying round statistics will count as post-season ones).

The loss continues the Blues’ return-to-play downward spiral.

St. Louis was the best in the Western Conference (42-19-10) and second overall in the league when the NHL suspended play March 12 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

But they were a hot mess in the return to play round-robin competition, blowing third-period leads in every game and scoring just six goals in three contests.

History is on Vancouver’s side. The teams have met three times in the playoffs (1995, 2003 and 2009). Each time the Canucks bounced the Blues out in the first round.

The Western Conference games are being played at Rogers Place, with all players being kept in isolation to avoid contracting COVID-19.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published August 12, 2020.

Dean Bennett, The Canadian Press

EDMONTON — Nazem Kadri and J.T. Compher scored 10 seconds apart in the third period, Philipp Grubauer stopped 14 shots and the Colorado Avalanche opened the Stanley Cup playoffs with a 3-0 victory over the Arizona Coyotes on Wednesday.

Colorado dominated the Coyotes through the first two periods, outshooting them 29-7, yet couldn’t get anything past goalie Darcy Kuemper.

Grubauer made the saves when he had to for his second career playoff shutout and Kadri broke a scoreless tie by punching in a rebound on a power play with 7 minutes left.

The Avalanche broke it open from there.

Compher scored on a backhanded rebound and Mikko Rantanen made it three goals in 1:23 to give Colorado the lead in the best-of-seven series heading into Game 2 on Friday.

Kuemper stopped 152 shots in four games against Nashville in the Stanley Cup qualifiers and was superb again, making several spectacular saves to keep the Coyotes in it. He finished with 37 saves, but the Coyotes generated little on offence.

Arizona benefited when when the NHL expanded the post-season bubbles to 12 teams per conference and took advantage, knocking off Nashville 3-1 in the Stanley Cup qualifiers. Kuemper was superb, stopping 152 shots, and the Coyotes had production throughout the lineup, with 16 players notching at least a point, 11 scoring a goal.

The Avalanche presented a much bigger problem.

The No. 2 seed in the West, Colorado is one of the NHL’s most dynamic scoring teams, led by Hart Trophy finalist Nathan MacKinnon, and has scoring depth across its lines.

The Avalanche had the Coyotes on their heels in the first period, peppering Kuemper with 13 shots while Arizona managed just three.

The Coyotes thrive in the rope-a-dope, though, and escaped the first period with a scoreless tie.

Arizona had some better stretches in the second period, yet had to be bailed out by numerous difficult saves by Kuemper to keep it scoreless while being outshot 16-4.

Colorado finally wore down the Coyotes in the third period, turning a tight game into a runaway in a span of 83 seconds.

Notes: Coyotes C Nick Schmaltz missed his fifth straight game with a head injury, but could return soon. … Colorado went 1 for 2 on the power play, Arizona 0 for 2. … Arizona G Antti Raanta missed his third straight game since suffering a pregame injury before Game 2 against Nashville.

UP NEXT

Game 2 is Friday in Edmonton.

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The Associated Press