Canucks survive Sens’ late charge
VANCOUVER 7 OTTAWA 4
VANCOUVER — Bo Horvat scored twice and added an assist to help the Vancouver Canucks keep their playoff hopes alive with a 7-4 win over the depleted Ottawa Senators on Wednesday night.
Tanner Pearson also had two goals for Vancouver (32-32-10), while Brock Boeser, Jake Virtanen and Loui Eriksson, into an empty net, chipped in as well.
The Canucks, who won their third straight game, matched their longest winning streak of the season.
Elias Pettersson had two assists. He leads all rookies with 27 goals, 36 assists and 63 points.
The win moved Vancouver four points behind the idle Arizona Coyotes in the race for the second wild card spot in the Western Conference.
Horvat and Boeser both scored on the power play. The Canucks have scored five power-play goals in their last five games. That follows a stretch of four power-play goals in 17 games.
Canuck goaltender Jacob Markstrom stopped 21 shots.
Ottawa (25-42-6) made it interesting when Max Veronneau, Brady Tkachuk and Oscar Lindberg scored goals 4:48 apart in the third period. Anthony DuClair scored on the power play with under two minutes left with goaltender Craig Anderson on the bench.
Veronneau’s goal was in first his three NHL games since signing as a free agent after playing with Princeton University.
Anders Nilsson made 33 saves for Ottawa.
The last-place Senators saw a two-game win streak snapped. Ottawa played most of the game a player short after defenceman Cody Ceci left in the first period with an upper-body injury after blocking a shot.
The Canucks’ first power-play goal came in the opening period, just 31 seconds after Ceci was called for holding. Horvat redirected an Alex Edler shot for his 26th goal of the season.
A boarding penalty by JeanGabriel Pageau set up Boeser’s goal at 17:00 of the second. He took a pass from Edler and beat Anderson on a low, hard shot.
The second period was just 32 seconds old when Pearson put the Canucks up 2-0. Defenceman Alex Biega lifted a pass high into the Senators’ end. Pearson swatted the bouncing puck past Nilsson.
Virtanen made it 3-0 at 5:56. He took a little chip pass from Jay Beagle, skated into the Ottawa zone and scored on a low shot to the glove side.
Pearson made it 5-0 with 57 seconds gone in the first.
Leafs 4, Sabres 2
BUFFALO — Mike Babcock sensed his slumping Toronto Maple Leafs were showing signs of turning the corner.
Auston Matthews and John Tavares delivered on their coach’s belief.
The high-scoring duo each had a goal and assist, and the Maple Leafs won for just the second time in six games, beating the Buffalo Sabres 4-2 on Wednesday.
“I thought we played real well last night and weren’t rewarded in the end,” Babcock said, referring to Toronto coming off a 3-0 loss at Nashville.
“And I thought we played real well here tonight and were rewarded,” he added. “I liked that we played hard and did things well and stuck together.”
The Maple Leafs didn’t wilt despite trailing 1-0 after an opening period in which they outshot Buffalo 19-7. And they responded by scoring three consecutive goals, including Tavares and Marner scoring 1:50 apart, spanning the second intermission.
“The little slump we’ve been in late, it’s frustrating for everybody. You try to stay positive,” Matthews said. “Everybody was prepared tonight despite the back to back, and everybody came out flying.”
Mitchell Marner and Zach Hyman, into an empty net, also scored and the Maple Leafs inched to within four points of the idle Boston Bruins in the race for second place in the Atlantic Division standings.