Stars 4, Canucks 2
Nearing a point-a-game pace on the season in his 22nd match, Vancouver forward Elias Pettersson picked up his 20th point with a power play goal at 14:25 of the 1st period to tie the game with the Dallas Stars at 2-2.
Linus Karlsson had the other Canucks marker to tie the game earlier at 1-1.
Who else would step up to help these two Swedes with some offence as the night unfolded? That was the question after 20 minutes. Ultimately, the answer would be no one.
Second-year forward Mavrik Bourque and red hot Jason Robertson had the markers for the Stars in the 1st.
In the second period the Canucks outshot the Stars 15-6, mostly due to three power play opportunities, including 1:20 worth of 5-on-3 time. They failed to click and the score stayed 2-2. The goalies at both ends, Jake Oettinger for Dallas and Kevin Lankinen for Vancouver, made stupendous saves along the way.
In the 3rd period, things became a bit scrambled. End to end they went and after a successful line change midway through the period, the Canucks turned the puck over at the Dallas blueline and the Stars were off to the races the other way. Colin Blackwell skated in alone and roofed a wrister over Lankinen for a 3-2 Dallas lead at 10:47. It was the third one-goal lead of the game for the visitors.
With Vancouver trying to get Lankinen off for the extra attacker in the final two minutes, a turnover led to a beautiful insurance goal from Mikko Rantanen with 91-seconds remaining. With Vancouver forward Brock Boeser backing up trying to play D, Rantanen fired a spin-o-rama backhander up over Lankinen’s shoulder.
It was Rantanen’s 34th point against Vancouver in 23 games played.
4-2 final.
The Canucks ended up 1-for-5 on the power play. The loss drops them two games below .500 on the season. Vancouver is off for two days before hosting the Calgary Flames on Sunday evening.
Earlier Canucks:
— Canucks Desperation; History Repeats Itself
