Conor Garland scored a tiebreaking goal late in the third period and the Vancouver Canucks claimed a 2-1 victory over the Arizona Coyotes on Wednesday in Tempe, Ariz.
Canucks captain Quinn Hughes had one goal and one assist — his 70th helper of the campaign — in the victory, while goaltender Arturs Silovs made 20 saves.
The Canucks (47-21-8, 102 points), who went into the clash with only one win in their past four games, lead the Edmonton Oilers by seven points for first place in the Pacific Division.
As overtime loomed, Hughes showed his skating skills to elude a check before getting to the top of the left circle and firing a shot that went wide. However, Garland, who was drafted by the Coyotes and spent three seasons with them but was traded to the Canucks in 2021, pounced on the loose puck and netted his 16th goal of the season with 1:51 remaining in regulation.
The Coyotes were unable to mount much of a late push for the equalizer.
Dylan Guenther scored the lone goal for the Coyotes (31-39-5, 67 points), who have lost two straight games. Goalie Connor Ingram stopped 31 shots.
Arizona is 3-3-0 during its current seven-game homestand that concludes Friday against the defending Stanley Cup champion Vegas Golden Knights.
After an uneventful first period in which the two clubs combined for only 10 shots on net, Hughes opened the scoring at 9:43 of the second period. With Garland setting the screen, Hughes slid across just inside the blue line before finding the mark with a long shot.
With his goal, Hughes collected the 326th point of his career, which puts him second only to Alex Elder (409) on the franchise’s all-time list for defensemen. He also became the 10th Canucks blue-liner to score 16 goals in a season and first since Ed Jovanovski in 2001-02.
J.T. Miller collected an assist to run his point-scoring streak to six games, during which he has collected two goals and seven points.
The Canucks have scored power-play goals in three consecutive outings.
However, after mounting almost nothing offensively during the first periods, the Coyotes were rewarded when Guenther finally solved Silovs with a power-play goal at 10:46 of the third period. In a three-way passing play, Alex Kerfoot slipped a pass to the slot, and Guenther immediately snapped a one-timer for his 13th goal of the season.
–Field Level Media
