Kuzmenko lifts Canucks to 3-2 win over Flames in SO

VANCOUVER, British Columbia — Andrei Kuzmenko scored within the shootout and the Vancouver Canucks beat the Calgary Flames 3-2 on Saturday evening.

Elias Pettersson and Cole McWard – together with his first NHL level – scored for the Canucks, who gained after giving up a 2-0 lead within the third interval. Thatcher Demko made 41 saves.

“When Calgary put some pushes on us, I just saw some backups,” Canucks coach Rick Tocchet mentioned. “We got to get that out of here. You got to lock it down, you can’t just rely on (Demko). He played great tonight. … Good teams lock it down and we got to get that mentality around here.”

Elias Lindholm and Nazem Kadri scored within the third interval for the Flames to power further time. Jacob Markstrom stopped 31 photographs.

Calgary outshot Vancouver 30-16 over the second and third intervals.

“Tough first period, and last two periods we were dominating,” Lindholm mentioned. “Had a lot of chances to score some more goals and I think we could have put this game away earlier than what happened out there and the shootout, and they won. … Tough loss, we just got to regroup and focus on Monday.”

PHOTOS: Kuzmenko lifts Canucks to 3-2 win over Flames in SO

Calgary pulled one level behind Winnipeg for the second wild card within the Western Conference. The Flames have two video games left on their regular-season schedule whereas the Jets have three.

In the tiebreaker, Kuzmenko skated huge of the Flames’ web, then fired a shot up into the highest nook to safe the win.

McWard, who made his NHL debut Thursday after signing a two-year, entry-level take care of Vancouver on Tuesday after finishing his second season at Ohio State University, scored his first NHL purpose 9:03 into the sport.

“It’s been a quick turnaround,” McWard mentioned. “It’s been an awesome experience so far. Really excited for the rest of the year and trying to continue whatever’s going on. … My parents got to watch this game so that was awesome they got to see that one. Definitely happy I got to score in front of them.”

Pettersson scored his thirty eighth of the season on a short-handed breakaway just a little greater than 4 minutes later to place the Canucks up 2-0.

Vancouver now has 15 short-handed targets this season, together with 13 since Rick Tocchet took over as head coach on Jan. 22.

“I think we came out flying in the first period. I thought we played a decent period. The shortie could have killed us, a soft play,” Flames coach Darryl Sutter mentioned. “And I think we slowly took over in a lot of areas. And then we couldn’t solve Demko. We fought back. Can’t ask much more than that.”

Lindholm bought the Flames on the scoreboard 38 seconds into the third together with his twenty second, and Kadri beat Demko for his twenty fourth at 6:07 to tie the rating.

“We know where they are (in the standings), so we know they were going to come out hard and we wanted to match that,” Pettersson mentioned. “And I think we did a really good job. They scored two quick on us. I think we let our foot off the gas but other than that I’m happy with our team.”

UP NEXT

Flames: Host Nashville on Monday evening to open a season-ending two-game homestand.