Canucks hold out for victory in L.A.
LOS ANGELES — Sven Baertschi scored twice, Ryan Miller made 41 saves and the Vancouver Canucks ended a fourgame losing streak by holding on for a 4-3 win over the Los Angeles Kings on Saturday night.
Henrik Sedin had a goal, Nikolay Goldobin scored in his Canucks debut and Bo Horvat had three assists as Vancouver won in regulation for just the second time in its last nine games.
Trevor Lewis and Anze Kopitar each scored a power-play goal, Alec Martinez scored a short-handed goal and Ben Bishop made 17 saves in his home debut for Los Angeles, which missed out on a chance to move three points ahead of St. Louis for the second wild card in the Western Conference.
Baertschi gave the Canucks a 1-0 lead 11:37 into the first period, taking advantage of a choice rebound off Loui Eriksson’s shot. The Kings never rotated over to account for Baertschi in the slot and he had the far side of the net open for his 14th goal of the season.
Sedin then benefited from a deflection off Drew Doughty’s stick that put the Canucks up 2-0 with 1:32 left in the first. Doughty was trying to break up Sedin’s pass to a streaking Alexander Edler during 4-on-4 play, but the puck took a wild bounce and ended up in the back of the net. The Kings bench was outraged that Miller was not called for tripping Carter just before the Canucks broke the other way and scored.
Los Angeles was also culpable for Baertschi’s second goal 6:38 into the second, with Nic Dowd kicking the puck in after Baertschi knocked down Horvat’s bouncing miss.
Goldobin scored on a breakaway midway through the second to make it 4-0, before Kopitar’s sniper shot just under the crossbar finally got the Kings on the scoreboard.
Lewis cut the Kings’ deficit to 4-2 with 7:57 remaining. Martinez then made it 4-3 with 1:21 to play, but Los Angeles could not come up with the tying goal to send it to overtime off a third-period comeback for the second straight game.