Penguins feel the heat
VANCOUVER — Rookie forward Brock Boeser scored the first hat trick of his NHL career and also added an assist as the Vancouver Canucks defeated the Pittsburgh Penguins 4-2 on Saturday.
Bo Horvat had a goal and three assists for Vancouver (7-4-2), while Sven Baertschi chipped in with three assists of his own.
Jacob Markstrom made 37 saves as the Canucks snapped a two-game slide where they scored just one combined goal in consecutive home losses (0-1-1).
Jake Guentzel and Greg McKegg replied for Pittsburgh (8-6-2), which got 17 stops from Matt Murray.
After the Penguins tied the game 2-2 at 4:49 of the third period when McKegg tipped home his second of the season, Boeser scored his third of the night and fifth of the year just 1:07 later after taking a feed from Horvat in the slot and ripping a shot against the grain, glove side on Murray. The goal came moments after Patric Hornqvist hit the post behind Markstrom.
Fans at Rogers Arena littered the ice with hats to salute the 20-year-old rookie’s first three-goal game, but it would be a nervy final 15 minutes as Pittsburgh again pressed for the tie.
One of the best chances came off the stick of Penguins forward Phil Kessel, who was robbed by Markstrom’s pad with six minutes left. Horvat put the game out of reach with 3:31 to when he roofed a shot up and over Murray for his fifth.
Boeser, who leads Vancouver in scoring with five goals and eight assists, now has 18 points (nine goals, nine assists) in 19 career games after playing nine times at the tail end of last season. He nearly had a fourth into an empty net with under a minute to go, but chose to pass instead of shoot.
Tied 1-1 after a spirited first, Boeser scored his second of the night at 7:14 of the middle period off a good Canucks cycle. Horvat fed a no-look pass from the corner in front to Baertschi, who kicked the puck to his stick and over to Boeser at the side of the net, where he slide his shot past a down-and-out Murray.
Markstrom, who was bailed out by Christopher Tanev with the puck sitting on his goal line on the first shift of the game, returned the favour earlier in the second with the score still tied when he stopped Kessel with his glove after the Canucks defenceman turned the puck over.