By The Associated Press
BOSTON (AP) — 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, including a misplay of a clearing attempt that led to the Canucks’ seventh goal.
“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.”
Bergeron gave the Bruins their only lead of the game, 2-1 at 0:36 of the second, when he beat Jacob Markstrom. Markstrom made 23 saves in his sixth start of the season.
“Pucks just found a way tonight,” Halak said. “Goalies have to have a short memory, so we need to regroup quickly and get ready for two tough games this weekend.”
Eriksson and Hutton responded for Vancouver by scoring in a 1:26 span, and Vancouver moved ahead 3-2 at the 8:28 mark. After DeBrusk tied it at 3 at the 11 minute mark, Halak allowed another pair of goals 1:30 apart for a 5-3 lead at 14:53.
Lightning 4, Islanders 2
TAMPA, Fla. — Andrei Vasilveksiy made 35 saves, Tyler Johnson broke a tie with 1:26 left in Tampa Bay’s victory over New York.
Vasilevskiy has allowed two or fewer goals in nine of 12 games.
Johnson scored from just outside the crease off a pass from Nikita Kucherov. Steven Stamkos added an empty-netter. Mathieu Joseph and J.T. Miller also scored to help Tampa Bay improve to an NHL-best 12-3-1.
Josh Bailey scored twice and Robin Lehner stopped 23 shots for the Islanders.
Flyers 5, Coyotes 4, OT
PHILADELPHIA — 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.
Scott Laughton had two goals and Travis Konecny also scored. The Flyers began a five-game homestand after earning seven of a possible eight points on a four-game trip out West.
Oliver Ekman-Larsson and Michael Grabner each had a goal and an assist, and Brad Richardson and Derek Stepan also scored for the Coyotes. They lost 5-2 at home to Philadelphia on Monday night.
Panthers 4, Oilers 1
SUNRISE, Fla. — Roberto Luongo made 26 saves in his second start since missing nine games with a knee injury to help Florida beat Edmonton.
Evgenii Dadonov, Nick Bjugstad, Jonathan Huberdeau and Colton Sceviour scored for the Panthers. Mike Hoffman and Vincent Trocheck each had two assists.
Leon Draisaitl scored for the Oilers, and Cam Talbot stopped 29 shots.
Hurricanes 4, Blackhawks 3
CHICAGO — 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 off Chicago to Jeremy Colliton’s NHL coaching debut.
Colliton became the 38th coach of the Blackhawks on Tuesday after Joel Quenneville was fired after 10 seasons. Chicago is 0-5-1 in its last six.
Patrick Kane, David Kampf and Nick Schmaltz scored for the Blackhawks.
Stars 4, Sharks 3
DALLAS — Devin Shore scored his second goal of the game to break a tie, Anton Khudobin tied a season high with 33 saves and Dallas beat San Jose.
Dillon Heatherington’s shot from the left point went off a defender’s leg to Shore in the left circle, and he beat Sharks goalie Martin Jones with 5:47 to play.
Stars scoring leader Tyler Seguin had a goal and an assist, and Gemel Smith also scored. Evander Kane, Timo Meier and Joe Pavelski scored for San Jose.
Golden Knights 5, Senators 3
OTTAWA, Ontario — William Carrier put Vegas ahead for good after Ottawa rallied from a three-goal deficit.
Jonathan Marchessault, Shea Theodore, Nick Holden and Pierre-Edouard Bellemare also scored for the Golden Knights, and Marc-Andre Fleury made 27 saves. Matt Duchene, Ryan Dzingel and Thomas Chabot scored for the Senators.
Wild 3, Kings 1
LOS ANGELES — Zach Parise had a goal and an assist to reach 700 points in his NHL career, leading the Minnesota Wild to a 3-1 win over the Los Angeles Kings on Thursday night.
Nico Niederreiter scored on the power play and Devan Dubnyk made 27 saves for the Wild, who have won eight of 10.
Jake Muzzin had a goal and Jack Campbell stopped 21 shots, but the Kings were unable to put together their first three-game winning streak of the season.
Parise put the Wild ahead 2-1 at 14:42 of the second period, getting his 700th point in 887 career games. Parise is the fifth NHL player born in Minnesota with 700 points, and his 339 career goals are the most among active American-born players.
