In Vancouver, the Toronto Maple Leafs tied their match with the Canucks, 1-1, in the third period on a goal from John Tavares.
But the Canucks replied with a pair of shorthanded goals, just 44 seconds apart to take a 3-1 lead en route to a 4-1 win over the Leafs on Saturday.
Elias Pettersson and J.T. Miller were the strikers on the shorties.
“It felt great,” Pettersson said. “Obviously, we talk about killing their play first, but we are happy we got two quick goals there on the PK.”
Thatcher Demko made 36 saves in the Vancouver win.
The Canucks moved to 25-32-5, they are 4-2-1 in their last seven.
“The last couple of weeks we’ve been really building towards an identity, and a game like that kind of showcased a lot of it,” Miller said. “Feels good to beat a team like that.”
So much for the Bo Horvat memories.
“Poor execution and elite forwards on the other side that capitalized,” Toronto coach Sheldon Keefe said. “You come out in the third period and your power play scores a huge goal and gets you in the game and then lets you down the next time out, so you’re torn on that one. … So in that case, their best players were better than ours.”
The Maple Leafs dropped to 38-17-8.
“It’s been a little up and down for us at times,” Tavares said. “We’ve put some really good stretches together over the last few weeks, but obviously we want to keep building momentum here, especially off of good efforts, good results.”
Vancouver took a 1-0 lead in the first period, despite being outshot by a 14-5 count, on a goal from Andrei Kuzmenko
The Canucks’ Nils Aman scored at 12:34 for the 4-+1 final.
Ryan O’Reilly left the ice in the second period after taking a shot off the hands.
“Obviously, he was unable to return, so serious enough that that was the case, but in terms of a timeline for him we’ll have an update Monday,” Keefe said.
Matt Murray made 20 saves in the Leafs loss.
“The game comes down to that first short-handed goal,” he said. “If I make a save there it’s a totally different game. But I felt pretty good overall.”
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