In Vancouver, Elias Pettersson struck twice in the third period to drive the Canucks to a 5-3 win over the struggling Nashville Predators on Tuesday night.
“It’s nice to win a tight game like this when the game was back and forth,” Pettersson said.
The Canucks outscored the Preds, 4-2, in the third period.
“It’s nice to win a tight game like this when the game was back and forth,” Pettersson said.
Thatcher Demko made 34 saves in the win.
“Everyone in the room knew tonight was a big game,” Demko said. “I felt we stepped up.”
Mikael Granlund and Filip Forsberg struck for the Predators in the busy third period.
“The first period was not great, and then we played a lot better in the second, taking it to them, and the third period was dictated by special teams,” Forsberg said. “It’s not good enough. It’s a little inconsistent. We’re not OK with that.”
Tanner Pearson also scored twice for Vancouver.
” That was a gutsy effort by our team all the way around,” Canucks head coach Travis Green said. “We talked to our group before the game that we are going to need all hands on deck tonight to bring their best. That is a good team over there, and that was a big win.”
Adam Gaudette had a single marker for the Canucks.
“It’s important to get contributions from everybody,” said Gaudette, who had an assist on Pearson’s power-play goal in the first period. “That’s when we are playing our best, when everybody is going, when everybody is contributing.”
Calle Jarnkrok also scored for Nashville.
“Probably had 13-14 chances in the second and another 10 chances in the third period,” Nashville coach Peter Laviolette said. “Throw that many chances, you hope to score some more goals.”
[WATCH: All Predators vs. Canucks highlights]
Pekka Rinne made 21 saves in the loss.
“Guys played hard, kept fighting back in the game and just couldn’t get there,” Laviolette said. “It was really competitive. In the first, I thought they had the better of us, and the last two periods, I thought we took over the game, but the difference was special teams.”
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