Daniel Sedin scored a pair of goals to lead the Western Conference-leading Vancouver Canucks to a 4-2 victory over the Washington Capitals at the Verizon Center on Friday.
Sedin scored the eventual game-winner on a breakaway late in the second period, snapping a shot past Capitals goalie Semyon Varlamov low on the blocker side to make the score 3-1.
Jannik Hansen, who had two assists, created the opportunity poking the puck off the stick of Jason Chimera to Sedin behind the Washington defense.
“We know they’re an elite team over there and we knew they’re a team that likes to play in the offense a lot,” Canucks center Ryan Kesler said. “We wanted to come in here and play a really solid defensive game and generate turnovers and go the other way.”
Sedin added the insurance goal into an empty net in the final minute of the third period.
The Capitals had opened the scoring in the first period on a breakaway goal by Matt Hendricks.
However, Vancouver defense partners Alexander Edler and Christian Ehrhoff both scored on low slapshots from the blueline to give the Canucks a 2-1 lead early in the second period before Sedin’s first goal effectively sealed the contest.
Marcus Johansson’s goal pulled the Capitals to within one near the middle of the third period, but the hosts were unable to complete the comeback despite out-shooting the Canucks 11-5 in the final frame.
“The first two periods we didn’t come out and play the way we wanted. You can’t do that against good teams like Vancouver,” Capitals center Nicklas Backstrom said. “The third period was good, but not good enough to get the win.”
BLUE JACKETS 3, RED WINGS 2, SO
In Columbus, Ohio, the hosts collected the 300th win in franchise history by beating Detroit in a shootout.
Antoine Vermette, shooting fourth, scored the only goal of the shootout when he slid a backhander between the leg pads of third-string goalie Joey MacDonald, who came on in the first period after Jimmy Howard was injured.
Johan Franzen had a chance to continue the shootout, but his shot was turned aside by Steve Mason, who stopped all four shots in the tiebreaker and had 26 saves in regulation and overtime.
Jake Voracek and Grant Clitsome scored in regulation for Columbus, which ended a five-game losing skid.
Drew Miller and Jiri Hudler scored for Detroit, which found out after the game that Tomas Holmstrom broke his hand and will be out four weeks.
FLAMES 3, SENATORS 2
In Ottawa, Calgary held on to edge Ottawa and win its first game in five.
David Moss scored goals 2:23 apart in the second and Ales Kotalik scored a power-play goal for Calgary.
Henrik Karlsson made 32 saves for Calgary, losing his shutout bid on Nick Foligno’s goal midway through the third.
In other NHL action, it was:
‧ Flyers 5, Thrashers 2
‧ Avalanche 4, Wild 1
‧ Devils 5, Lightning 2
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