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Markstrom was stellar for most of the period otherwise, stopping both Steen and Paul Stastny on breakaways before again thwarting Steen with a nice save moments after his gaffe on Brodziak.

St. Louis hit the post three times in third period, while Boeser had two good chances off the rush that had Rogers Arena buzzing, but Allen was there to make the save both times — including the second one where the Blues netminder just got a piece of the puck with his left shoulder.

“Watching some tape, he’s got such a hard and good release that I don’t think it’s a reactionary save,” said Allen. “It’s a positional save. If you try to wave your glove at it, he’s probably going to beat you most of the time.

“There are guys like that in the league that you more or less have to be positioned, and he’s one of those guys. He’s got a bunch of goals for a reason. He’s got a great shot.”

The Canucks continued to push, but couldn’t find a way through before Steen scored into an empty net with 52.3 seconds left as St. Louis improved to 19-0-0 this season when leading after 40 minutes.

Down 1-0 after the first, Boeser evened things at 1:46 of the second on a slick passing play where Sam Gagner fed Thomas Vanek, who went back against the grain to find the wide-open phenom.

“(Vanek) is such a good playmaker,” said Boeser. “I knew he was going to pass it to me there because I skate with him in the summers.

“I’ve just got to learn from him now and make some of those passes.”

The Blues opened the scoring at 11:17 of a sleepy first when Berglund wheeled out of the corner and let go a fluttering backhand from the high slot that beat Markstrom for his fifth.

“I just kind of fanned on it,” said Markstrom. “It’s on me.”

Vancouver had another great opportunity later in the period, but Alex Biega found iron on a shot from the point, and Markus Granlund hit the other post on the rebound before Allen smothered the puck on the goal line.

“It’s a fine line between winning and losing,” said Green. “That was a hard-fought game.

“(It) probably could have gone either way, and we’re on the wrong side of it.”

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