Joshua paces Canucks to win over slumping Ducks

It’s not often an NHL player is disappointed when his team wins.

Sunday might be the exception for the Vancouver Canucks.

“It wasn’t a great performance by our group,” said Dakota Joshua, who scored twice as his Canucks snuck out a 3-2 victory over the Anaheim Ducks.

“I guess you can be upset after a win. If there was a case, that was probably it. But it was nice to still persevere and get the two points.”

The game started well for the Canucks (46-20-8).

Brock Boeser scored his 38th of the season on a first-period power play and Joshua followed suit with a highlight-reel worthy goal midway through the second.

With Jakob Silfverberg in the box for tripping, Pius Suter sent a hard pass to Joshua down low. The big winger pulled the puck back up to the top of the crease with his backhand and got a shot off from between his legs, sending it up and over Ducks goalie Lukas Dostal stick side.

“It was awesome. I told him I’ve never tried that. So it was a heck of a play, big time play for us,” said J.T. Miller, who contributed a pair of assists.

Early in the third, though, the slumping Ducks (24-47-4) found the back of the net twice in 71 seconds.

Olen Zellweger scored his first NHL goal, then the Canucks left Mason McTavish unmanned at the side of the net and he slammed home his 18th of the campaign.

Joshua rescued the win with two minutes and 13 seconds left on the game clock.

Conor Garland sent him a backhanded pass from the end boards and Joshua, stationed alone in front of the Anaheim net, fired it in past Dostal to put Vancouver up 3-2 with his second of the game.

Ducks coach Greg Cronin called the result “a shame.”

“We get a power play with five minutes to go in the game and we don’t get a shot on net. You get some good fortune there and we don’t capitalize on that, and then it’s a cardinal sin — you don’t leave the front of the net when the puck is behind your net,” he said.

The Canucks are in Las Vegas tonight to take on the Golden Knights.