Pettersson pots three points as Canucks beat Sabres
VANCOUVER — Elias Pettersson scored twice and notched an assist Tuesday as his Vancouver Canucks edged the Buffalo Sabres 3-2.
Conor Garland added a goal, while Quinn Hughes and J.T. Miller each registered a pair of helpers for the Canucks (43-18-8).
Rasmus Dahlin replied twice for the Sabres (33-32-5), who were coming off a 6-2 thrashing of the Kraken in Seattle on Monday.
Vancouver netminder Casey DeSmith made 16 saves in his first victory since starter Thatcher Demko was sidelined by injury last week.
Making his first NHL start since Jan. 24, Buffalo netminder Devon Levi stopped 31 of 33 shots. He was recalled from the Rochester Americans of the American Hockey League on Saturday.
The result left Vancouver atop the Western Conference standings, one point ahead of the Winnipeg Jets and Colorado Avalanche.
Buffalo fell to five points back of the Detroit Red Wings, who hold the second wild-card berth in the Eastern Conference.
The visitors refused to go quietly Tuesday, with Dahlin scoring his second of the night from the point with 20.7 seconds left on the game clock.
The Sabres pulled Levi with two minutes and 30 seconds to go but couldn’t beat DeSmith to force overtime.
Instead, Pettersson collected the puck from Miller in Vancouver territory and sprinted up the ice, putting an easy shot into the empty net to seal the score at 3-1.
Dahlin cut the visitors’ deficit to 2-1 during a stretch of fouron-four play after Vancouver’s Tyler Myers and Buffalo’s Jeff Skinner were both sent to the box for slashing midway through the third period.