Vancouver’s Brock Boeser eclipsed the 300-point milestone with three assists as the surging Canucks earned their season-high fifth straight victory by beating the visiting Dallas Stars 5-2 on Tuesday night.
The second-line right winger reached 301 points in 382 games by assisting on scores by Phillip Di Giuseppe, Andrei Kuzmenko and J.T. Miller, who added a helper.
Anthony Beauvillier also scored for the Canucks, and Guillaume Brisebois scored his first career NHL goal. Conor Garland had two assists.
Goaltender Thatcher Demko managed 25 saves to win for the fifth time in six starts (5-1-0) since returning from injury on Feb. 27.
Dallas’ Jamie Benn netted the 100th power-play goal of his career and added an assist, and Wyatt Johnston also found the back of the net.
Defenseman Miro Heiskanen supplied two helpers for a career-best eight-game point streak that has featured four straight multi-point outings.
Playing in his second NHL game and suffering his first loss, 25-year-old goalie Matt Murray stopped 14 shots.
The Stars lost their fifth straight (0-4-1) against the Canucks.
Center Tyler Seguin (leg laceration) missed his third straight game while left winger Mason Marchment was scratched and replaced by Luke Glendening, who returned from an 11-game absence.
Vancouver was able to capitalize on two of its first three shots against Murray in the first six minutes.
On his 30th birthday, Miller spotted Di Giuseppe open in front of Murray and sent a perfect pass through the slot. Di Giuseppe deposited his third goal of the season just 95 seconds into the game.
During its first power play, Vancouver worked the puck around swiftly, with Kuzmenko finishing a cross-ice feed from Garland at the six-minute mark. It was the first-year player’s 33rd tally.
On a rush 48 seconds into the second, Johnston finished a clever pass from Benn for his 18th goal, on a play Demko had very little chance of defending. That made it 2-1.
After Beauvillier tipped in a long shot by Christian Wolanin for his 16th goal at 11:53, Benn rounded out the frame’s scoring on a power play by wristing in his 29th tally with only five seconds left.
On a two-on-one break in the third, Nils Aman slid a backhanded pass that Brisebois buried at 4:09 — his first goal as he played in his 22nd NHL game.
Miller capped the scoring at 16:58 — his 25th marker of the season.
–Field Level Media
