Quinn Hughes scored the overtime winner to cap a three-point game as the host Vancouver Canucks claimed a comeback 4-3 victory over the struggling New York Islanders on Wednesday.
Hughes, J.T. Miller and Brock Boeser all produced one goal and two assists and Filip Hronek also scored for the Canucks, who erased a two-goal deficit while improving to 10-1-1 in their past 12 games. Vancouver goaltender Thatcher Demko made 30 saves.
Former Canucks captain Bo Horvat scored in his first game back in Vancouver since being traded to New York in January. Pierre Engvall and Brock Nelson also tallied for the Islanders, who have lost six consecutive games (0-4-2). Mathew Barzal notched two assists, and goaltender Ilya Sorokin made 39 saves.
On the winning goal, Miller sent a breakaway pass to Hughes, and the defenseman found the mark with a quick shot from the slot for his sixth goal of the season at 2:36 of overtime.
It ended a wild back-and-forth clash.
Engvall opened the scoring with his first of the season, a power-play goal at 7:30 of the first period, when his shot from the left circle made it through a screen.
Nelson doubled the lead with another power-play goal 82 seconds later. He notched his seventh of the season by slipping a sharp-angled backhand on a rebound.
Miller put the Canucks on the board with his 10th goal of the season at 4:39 of the second period, a shot from the right faceoff dot for a power-play goal.
Horvat restored New York’s two-goal edge four minutes later. He played give-and-go with Barzal and converted a one-timer from the right faceoff circle for his fifth of the season, only to see his former team claw back.
Boeser made it a one-goal game at 11:03 of the second with another power-play marker, a one-timer from the slot for his 13th of the season — which moved him into a tie with the Toronto Maple Leafs’ Auston Matthews and the Winnipeg Jets’ Kyle Connor for the league lead.
Hronek, during a five-on-three advantage, scored Vancouver’s third power-play goal of the night with 11:30 remaining in regulation. He blasted a point shot, officially clocked at 107.9 mph, for his first of the season. Hronek has an 11-game point streak, which equals the franchise mark for a defenseman.
The Islanders have surrendered nine power-play goals in the past six games.
–Field Level Media
