Canucks sting Coyotes late
VANCOUVER 3 ARIZONA 2 (OT)
VANCOUVER — Ben Hutton scored on a penalty shot at 2:34 of overtime Thursday as the Vancouver Canucks defeated the Arizona Coyotes 3-2.
Hutton was hooked on a breakaway by Dylan Strome before beating Louis Domingue with a nice backhand deke for his second goal of the season.
Daniel Sedin, with a goal and an assist, and Brandon Sutter also scored for Vancouver (7-10-1).
Jacob Markstrom made 34 saves for the Canucks, who entered play having lost 11 of their last 13, including Tuesday’s 7-2 loss to the Rangers.
Brad Richardson, who was later carted off on a stretcher with an injured right leg, and Anthony DeAngelo replied for Arizona (5-9-2).
Domingue stopped 39 shots for the Coyotes, who have lost four in a row.
Tied 2-2 after 40 minutes, Domingue made a nice glove save on Vancouver’s Loui Eriksson six minutes into third before a sliding Max Domi partially blocked a Henrik Sedin effort on the backcheck.
Domi was then denied at the other end on a great backhand that Markstrom, who started in net for the Canucks for the second straight game with Ryan Miller out with the flu, got with his glove.
Daniel Sedin had another golden opportunity with under three minutes to go, but Domingue was there.
The Coyotes opened the scoring 1:22 into the second when Richardson’s shot off the rush glanced off the stick of Vancouver defenceman Alexander Edler and past Markstrom shortside for his fifth. The Canucks challenged the play for offside, but the call stood.
DeAngelo made it 2-0 on a broken play at 10:45 after Markstrom overcommitted to Martin Hanzal at the side of the Vancouver net. The puck slid off Hanzal’s stick and into the slot where DeAngelo’s deflected shot floated into the empty goal for his second.
Things were looking good for the Coyotes at that point, but Richardson crumpled to the ice with a right leg injury a few minutes later after a collision with hulking Canucks defenceman Nikita Tryamkin, who stands sixfoot-seven and weighs 265 pounds.
Medical staffs from both teams attended to Richardson for several minutes before loading him onto a stretcher.
Vancouver cut the deficit to 2-1 with 4:15 left in the period when Sutter took a pass from Daniel Sedin and buried his fourth of the season and third in as many games past Domingue.
The Canucks’ much-maligned power play then got them on level terms just 2:13 later when Henrik Sedin threw a nice backhand pass across the ice to Edler, who in turn found Daniel Sedin in the slot for his sixth to send the teams to the locker-rooms tied 2-2.
Leafs 6, Panthers 1
TORONTO — Connor Brown set a career-high with four points and Mitch Marner scored another impressive goal as the Toronto Maple Leafs spoiled James Reimer’s first start as an Air Canada Centre foe.
Brown scored two goals and added two assists in the 6-1 win over Reimer’s Florida Panthers (8-8-1). Leo Komarov, James van Riemsdyk and Jake Gardiner also added tallies in Toronto’s seventh victory in nine tries at home (7-2-0), Nazem Kadri chipping in with a pair of assists.
Frederik Andersen stopped 26 shots, improving to 6-2-0 in November for Toronto (8-6-3).
Aaron Ekblad scored the lone goal for Florida, Reimer pegged for six goals on 30 shots in his first start in Toronto as a member of the opposition.
Signed for five years and $17 million US this past summer, Reimer has been just OK with a 2-3-1 record in his first seven games with Florida.
Marner now has six goals and 10 points in his last seven games.
Auston Matthews remained without a goal for the 11th consecutive game.
Flyers 5, Jets 2
PHILADELPHIA — The Philadelphia Flyers used strong goaltending and opportunistic scoring to get just their second win in six games.
Michael Raffl and Sean Couturier scored 34 seconds apart in the first period on Philadelphia’s initial two shots, and the Flyers beat the Winnipeg Jets 5-2.
Mark Streit, Wayne Simmonds and Brandon Manning also scored for the Flyers, who had 12 players register points.
Blake Wheeler and Dustin Byfuglien had the goals for the Jets, while Steve Mason made 30 saves.