Resilient Canucks overwhelm Bruins to extend streak
The Vancouver Canucks keep on showing that they are the surprise of the Western Conference.
Bo Horvat had two goals and two assists and the Canucks extended their winning streak to five games with an 8- 5 victory over the Boston Bruins on Thursday night.
“There is a lot of resiliency in this room,” Horvat said. “We played a pretty good game in Detroit and after a tough loss like that to come back shows a lot. In preseason, people didn’t think we were going to be that high- scoring of a team, but we keep proving people wrong and that’s what we need to continue to do.”
Canucks 2017 first round pick Elias Pettersson, despite notching an assist, built on his rookie scoring lead, giving him 17 points on the season. He is a big part of the reason the Canucks seemed to have made significant strides to start the season.
Loui Eriksson added two goals and an assist and spurred a five- goal outbust in the second period for Vancouver. Ben Hutton and Erik Gudbranson each had a goal and an assist, and Antoine Roussel and Jake Virtanen added goals for the Canucks, who have scored 26 goals in the last five games.
“I had some puck luck today probably,” Eriksson said. “We know we have some young guys playing, and they are still learning, but they are handling their situations and responding well.”
Jake DeBrusk scored twice, Patrice Bergeron, Matt Grzelcyk and Danton Heinen added goals, and David Krejci finished with three assists for Bruins. Boston lost for the second time at home this season and has dropped three of five overall.
Jaroslav Halak came into the game leading the NHL in save percentage, but was pulled after allowing five goals on 19 shots. His replacement, Tuukka Rask, didn’t do much better, allowing three goals on the first eight shots he faced.
“I was just trying to keep it under 10,” Rask said sarcastically. “Just trying to do damage control as it was kind of a crazy game.”
HURRICANES 4, BLACKHAWKS 3 » Goals by Andrei Svechnikov, Jaccob Slavin, Phillip Di Giuseppe and Calvin de Haan gave Carolina a four-goal lead early in the second period and the Hurricanes held on for a victory over Chicago that spoiled the NHL coaching debut of Jeremy Colliton.
LIGHTNING 4, ISLANDERS 2 » Andrei Vasilveksiy made 35 saves, Tyler Johnson broke a tie with 1:26 left in Tampa Bay’s victory over New York.
SABRES 6, CANADIENS 5 » Rasmus Ristolainen scored at 1:38 of overtime to lead Buffalo to a victory over Montreal.
FLYERS 5, COYOTES 4» Shayne Gostisbehere scored on a one-timer 1:01 into overtime after Dale Weise tied it with 2:13 left in regulation, and Philadelphia beat Arizona.
PANTHERS 4, OILERS 1 » Roberto Luongo made 26 saves in his second start since missing nine games with a knee injury to help Florida beat Edmonton.
GOLDEN KNIGHTS 5, SENATORS 3 » William Carrier put Vegas ahead for good after Ottawa rallied from a three-goal deficit, and Vegas beat the Senators.