NHL Game Summary - Vancouver at St. Louis

St. Louis, MO (SportsNetwork.com) - Ryan Miller had 31 saves against his former club as the Vancouver Canucks beat the St. Louis Blues 4-1 on Thursday.

Miller, who signed with the Canucks this past offseason after spending the second half of last season in St. Louis, turned aside 17 shots in the first two periods before stopping all 15 he faced in the third.

"It was interesting," said Miller. "I've never done that before. I've never had a chance to play against a former team like that. ... A lot of good guys on the [Blues]; it was one that I was actually really looking forward to, especially here in St. Louis. It was fun."

Chris Higgins, Nick Bonino, Linden Vey and Jannik Hansen all scored for Vancouver, which got back on track after consecutive losses.

Kevin Shattenkirk scored the lone goal for the St. Louis, which got 19 saves from Jake Allen in defeat.

"We're not playing the right way," said Blues coach Ken Hitchcock. "We've made a heck of a run here playing the right way; no odd-man rushes, no forced offense, don't give the puck away and make hope-for plays offensively. We've had a shoot-first mentality that's allowed us to be top-five in the League in scoring goals, but we don't want to play the right way. We want to play a different game right now, so until we buy into that, we're going to have some rough water we're going to have to go through, and that's what we're in right now. We're in rough water."

The score was tied 1-1 through two periods. The Blues nearly jumped in front early in the third, but Miller stuffed Jori Lehtera on the doorstep. The save led to an odd-man rush for Vancouver, as Bonino took a feed from Alexandre Burrows, skated in alone and beat Allen stick side to give the visitors the 2-1 edge.

Vey added to the lead at the 11:57 mark, when he found space in front of Allen on a power play and Henrik Sedin slipped him a pass from behind the net.

Hansen's empty-net goal all the way from the Canucks zone put the finishing touches on the comfortable victory.

Earlier, Higgins opened the scoring 41 seconds in when a turnover near center ice allowed Burrows to skate in by himself. Allen blocked his wrister, and Higgins was there to slap home the rebound.

Shattenkirk tied it at 7:38 of the second, beating Miller five-hole on a wrister from the left circle.