In Vancouver, the Canucks hit for five goals in the opening stanza on Tuesday night en route to a 6-3 thrashing of the visiting Ottawa Senators. 
Elias Pettersson hit for a double in the outburst in the first period.
“Probably one of our best periods in about a month. It was awesome,” Vancouver coach Rick Tocchet said of the first. “Everybody was really connected.”
Thatcher Demko made 35 saves in the win.
Vancouver improved to 24-10-3.
“It was a lesson learned about how hard you have to compete,” Ottawa coach Jacques Martin said. “We just need to do things quicker. We need to be harder on pucks, and it’s not one or two players. We can’t sustain. We win one game and then we revert to where the team was before. … We have to increase, raise our level of compete.”
The game was ugle for Ottawa from the start with the Canucks jumping out early.
Ian Cole got the offense rolling at 2:14 to put the Canucks up, 1-0.
Pius Suter pushed the lead to 2-0 at 12:39.
Pettersson picked up his first of the period at 16:34 for a 3-0 lead off a sharp angle shot.
Twenty-four seconds later J.T. Miller hit for a goal to pad the lead to 4-0.
“It was a good first,” Miller said. “Couple of lucky bounces went our way”
Pettersson’s double ballooned the lead to 5-0 at 17:53 off a power play strike.
“Nice to have a lucky bounce go in. I thought we moved well and had some looks,” Pettersson said. “I’ll take it every day.”
The Senators dropped to 14-19-0.
“You’re not going to win any games in the NHL giving up five goals in the first period, plain and simple. Especially not against a team like Vancouver that’s having a lot of success this year,” Senators defenseman Thomas Chabot said.
Claude Giroux cut into the Vancouver lead 91 seconds into the middle frame for a 5-1 score.
“They score one, you just got to keep playing like we scored one,” Giroux said. “If they score one, it doesn’t matter, you got to keep playing the right way and not start changing your game. They had a few bounces, but that’s hockey.”
Ottawa’s Vladimir Tarasenko hit for a double in the third period. He scored with 37 seconds gone in the third for a 5-2 score then again at 17″29 for a 5-3 count.
“It should’ve been an easier night for [Demko],” Tocchet said of the final two periods. “We lost our staples. We didn’t go through people, we were backing up, we were pinching when we shouldn’t. Those are the things I don’t like.”
Just 13 seconds after the second goal from Tarasenko, Suter hit for his double to give the Canucks a little more breathing room for the 6-3 final count.
Anton Forsberg got the start for the Senators, but was given the hook at 16:58 of the first after yielding four goals, and making nine saves.
Joonas Korpisalo made 11 saves in a long mop up role.
“It’s very frustrating right now but I believe in this group,” Giroux said. “We have the potential to win 10 in a row if we do it the whole game, we’re consistent in it and we got everybody doing it. I strongly believe we can get on a roll.”
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