In Vancouver a stunner ended with the Canucks defeating the Nashville Predators, 5-3.
Elias Pettersson potted a penalty shot, and Jake Virtanen and Bo Horvat had a goal each and two points on the night.
“I think we played good some games that we lost,” Pettersson said. “It’s good to finally be rewarded, get some bounces with us. We played really good today. This is what it’s going to take from us to be successful. Hopefully we can build on this.”
Jacob Markstrom made 26 saves to get the win, just the second in 14 games for Vancouver.
“We played a hard hockey game and got rewarded,” Markstrom said. “We can’t be happy and relax and think it’s over. We have some catching up to do.”
Ryan Hartman, Colton Sissons and Matt Irwin struck for the Predators.
“They were faster than us, and we turned the puck over way too much, so a fast game appeared even faster just because of our puck decisions,” Nashville head coach Peter Laviolette said.
Alexander Edler and Loui Eriksson also scored for the Canucks.
“I felt like with our speed we were catching them on 2-on-1s a lot,” Virtanen said. “We stuck to our system and the structure of our game throughout the whole game.”
[WATCH: All Predators vs. Canucks highlights]
Pekka Rinne got the start but got the hook in the second intermission; he made 21 saves through 40 minutes and yielded four goals.
“It could have been 5-0 after the first, honestly, without Pekka in there,” Sissons said.
Juuse Saros played the third period made four saves.
“I thought we pushed back in the second half of the game but it was too late,” Laviolette said. “The start wasn’t good and it ended up costing the game.”
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