In Vancouver, the Canucks won their second straight game, 5-1 over the visiting Pittsburgh Penguins on Friday night.
Bo Horvat hit for a pair of goals in the win.
Spencer Martin made 34 saves in the Canucks win.
“[Tonight] was obviously one of our more complete games we’ve played all season, against a good hockey team that was well rested, and we were coming off a back to back,” Horvat said. “So, I’m proud of our guys. I’m proud of the way we came out and played tonight, despite the adversity.”
Rickard Rakell was the lone striker for the Pens.
“We just got to stop the bleeding, figure it out,” Rakell said. “Probably a good thing that we have a game tomorrow again. We’ve just got to go after it.”
Vancouver was winless in their first seven games of the season.
“It’s two games, but you could tell it was like the weight of the world was lifted off our shoulders, quite frankly,” Canucks coach Bruce Boudreau said. “Because every other third period has been like ‘Oh, what’s going to happen that’s negative?’ And I think once we got through the first three minutes, it was like, ‘OK, let’s go.’ And everybody just played and I thought it was really good.”
Vancouver took a 1-0 lead in the first period off a strike from Tanner Pearson .
“Obviously there’s a lot more energy, obviously the smiles on our faces,” Horvat said of the feeling in the locker room. “But we’ve got to dig ourselves out of the hole here. Obviously, we put ourselves in this situation. Just because we won two games, you can’t be satisfied. We’ve got to keep going here.”
Horvat’s first goal came in the second period, off the power play, for a 2-0 lead. Rakell scored to make it 2-1.
“Confidence is an amazing thing,” Boudreau said, “And it looks like we’re gaining a little bit right now.”
Andrei Kuzmenko scored for Vancouver to give them a 3-1 lead.
“I think at some points, maybe some urgency, execution,” Penguins captain Sidney Crosby said when asked what’s missing. “We had some looks maybe to get back in the game, a few of them, and we didn’t, especially tonight. I don’t think it’s the same thing necessarily, but if anything’s been consistent, it’s been our starts that we’ve struggled with, so we’ve got to establish that.”
J.T. Miller added an empty-net goal on the power play for the 5-1 final.
Tristan Jarry made 24 saves in the Pittsburgh loss.
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