After developing a nasty habit of blowing third period leads, the Vancouver Canucks snapped out of the trend and scored the final three goals of the game in the frame and handed the Colorado Avalanche a 6-3 loss on Friday night.
Thatcher Demko made 29 saves to earn the victory.
J.T. Miller scored for the Canucks – file photo by Lewis Bleiman
Zack MacEwen scored twice for the Canucks.
“For the team to get two points, going into the third with the lead, it was huge,” MacEwen said.
Erik Johnson, Valeri Nichushkin and Gabriel Landeskog scored for the Avs who tied the game at 3-3.
“We’ve dug in and we’re within two points of St. Louis now, and that’s pretty good work,” Avs head coach Jared Bednar said. “We had an opportunity to be tied for first if we won tonight, and we didn’t get the job done. Hopefully, we have that opportunity a few more times here down the stretch.”
Troy Stecher, J.T. Miller and Antoine Roussel also scored for Vancouver.
“Even when they scored goals, I thought our response was really good,” Demko said. “That’s something we can build on. Closing games out is really important.”
Tanner Pearson added an empty net goal to seal it.
“It definitely feels good to close out a third period,” Bo Horvat said. “We stayed composed, and Thatcher came up big, and we got goals when we needed them. Zack had a great night.”
[WATCH:Â All Avalanche vs. Canucks highlights]
Pavel Francouz made 19 saves in the loss.
“It was back and forth, really good pace, it was competitive and physical, which I like to see from our group,” Bednar said. “But it’s a game of mistakes, and the ones we made today were pretty big ones.”
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