In Calgary, former Flame Nikita Zadorov returned to town with Vancouver on Saturday to help the Canucks down the Flames, 4-3.
Zadorov was traded to Vancouver on Thursday.
“It feels great,” Zadorov, said.. “It’s an important win for this team. It’s a big road game. We played a really good hockey team on the road and we stuck with it. All the boys played [hard] today. It’s definitely a nice starting point of my career with the Canucks.”
Elias Lindholm his second of two in the third period make it 4-3 at 19:06 off a power play strike.
“I think overall they were more desperate than us,” Lindholm said. “I think in the first they were stronger on pucks and won more battles and were better just overall. I think overall today we weren’t good enough to win the game.”
Vancouver improved to 16-8-1.
“I believe in this group,” the Canucks’ Quinn Hughes said. “I think we’re going to win a lot of hockey games and I think we have to keep putting it together every night and finding a way to win.”
Thatcher Demko made 20 saves in the win.
Hughes scored at 2_02 of the first period to give the Canucks a 1-0 lead,
Sam Lafferty advanced the lead to 2-0 at 8:38 of the first.
“We can start on time and start better and push the pace,” Flames defenseman MacKenzie Weegar said. “That first 10 minutes they sort of dictated the pace and we should be the one in our home building to dictate the pace in the first 10 minutes. The last few games, obviously we haven’t had the lead and that’s a position we’re comfortable in.”
Calgary dropped to 10-11-3.
Calgary replied with a power play strike at 12:18 by Mikael Backlund to trim the deficit to 2-1.
With 28 seconds left in the middle frame, Ilya Mikheyev hit for a goal to give the Canucks a 3-1 lead headed to the third.
Lindholm scored early in the third with his first of the period, to cut the deficit to 3-2.
“We’d like to play with the lead, but it just seems to be that way right now, be down a lot and come back,” Lindholm said. “We ran out of luck today. It’s a dangerous game to play. We’ve got to come out better and be better in the first.”
Elias Pettersson scored at 18:40 off a tip in of a shot from Zadorov for a 4-2 lead to Vancouver.
“Excited to have him,” Hughes said. “Kind of a rare player that we haven’t really had here and are fortunate to have. I thought he played great. It’s not easy playing his first game here. I’m sure he had lots of emotions and whatnot. I’m sure he’s excited to get back to Vancouver.”
Jacob Markstrom made 18 saves in the loss.
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