Canucks can’t beat Vegas
Vancouver falls 5-2 to expansion club
VANCOUVER — Erik Haula scored the go-ahead goal in the third period as part of a two-point night in the Vegas Golden Knights’ 5-2 victory over the Vancouver Canucks on Thursday.
David Perron, Jonathan Marchessault and William Karlsson also had a goal and an assist apiece, while Reilly Smith, into an empty net, provided the finishing touch for Vegas (11-6-1).
Maxime Lagace, who made his ninth straight start, finished with 19 saves to get the win after giving up seven goals on 29 shots in Tuesday’s 8-2 loss to the Edmonton Oilers.
Brock Boeser and Bo Horvat replied for Vancouver (9-8-2). Jacob Markstrom made 25 stops.
After blowing a 2-0 lead in the second period, the Golden Knights went back in front at 6:27 of the third when James Neal stripped defenceman Erik Gudbranson of the puck behind the net and passed to Perron, who quickly fed Haula across the top of the crease for his sixth of the season.
Perron now has two goals and seven assists in a six-game point streak, while Haula has four goals and four assists in his last six contests.
Vancouver, which returned home after wrapping up a 2-2-0 road trip with Tuesday’s 3-2 victory over the Los Angeles Kings, didn’t offer much in the way of an attack for the majority of the night.
The Canucks had a chance off Boeser’s stick with under seven minutes to go that Lagace got a pad on.
Marchessault then put the game out of reach with 3:05 left when he jumped on a horrendous Derrick Pouliot turnover before beating Markstrom low for his fifth.
Smith then iced it into an empty net with his sixth with 2:02 remaining.
Down 2-0 after a first period where his team created next to nothing, Canucks head coach Travis Green shook up his lines in the second, and got some immediate results.
Boeser scored his sixth of the year at 12:04 after Vegas centre Oscar Lindberg’s pass in the slot went right to the rookie winger, who made no mistake past a surprised Lagace.
The Canucks then evened things with 2:42 left in the period when Thomas Vanek’s partially blocked shot dribbled towards the Golden Knights’ crease. Vancouver forward Sam Gagner kicked the puck to Horvat, and he slid his eighth, and second in an as many games, past Lagace.
Both teams had good chances earlier, with Markstrom stopping Marchessault with a kick save, and Lagace stoning Brandon Sutter with his pad on a breakaway.
The Golden Knights opened the season a surprising 8-1-0 — the best-ever start for an NHL expansion team — but are just 3-5-1 since with Lagace, the club’s fourth-string goalie, taking over the crease for injured netminders Marc-Andre Fleury (concussion), Malcolm Subban (lower body) and Oscar Dansk (lower body).
Dylan Ferguson, a 19-year-old emergency callup from the WHL’s Kamloops Blazers, has been Vegas’ backup since Dansk went down on Oct. 30, and played the final nine minutes 14 seconds of Tuesday’s loss in Edmonton.
The Golden Knights opened the scoring Thursday at 3:22 of the first when Perron took a feed from Nate Schmidt, toe-dragged around Henrik Sedin and ripped his sixth low to Markstrom’s stick side.
Vancouver has allowed the first goal of the game inside the first five minutes of the first period eight times this season.
The Canucks came close to equalizing moments after a Vegas penalty expired midway through the period, but Boeser’s shot at a wide-open net with Lagace out of position was blocked by Marchessault.
The visitors doubled their lead at the 13-minute mark when Alex Tuch won a puck battle behind the net with Pouliot before feeding Karlsson all alone in front for his seventh.
The Canucks host St. Louis on Saturday.