CALGARY, Alberta (AP) 鈥� Andrei Kuzmenko scored the only goal of the shootout and the Vancouver Canucks beat the Calgary Flames 4-3 Wednesday night for their sixth straight road win.
Bo Horvat, Conor Garland and Sheldon Dries scored in regulation for the Canucks who gave up an early two-goal lead and had to come back to tie the score. Nils Hoglander had two assists and Spencer Martin stopped 35 shots to improve to 9-3-1.
鈥淚 was proud of the way we played tonight,鈥� Horvat said. 鈥淚t's a tough building to come into, they got a good team over there. Obviously, I'd like to not give up a two-goal lead but at the same time we didn't panic. In previous games or early in the year, we might have a little panic in our game, Dries scored a big goal and I thought we did a good job after that, kind of limiting their Grade-As. Overall, it was a great game and Marty was fantastic.鈥�
Mikael Backlund, Andrew Mangiapane and Trevor Lewis scored for Calgary, which lost its fourth straight overall 鈥� third straight beyond regulation 鈥� and fell to 6-1-1 in its last eight at home. Dillon Dube had two assists and Jacob Markstrom finished with 24 saves.
鈥淏ig point for us,鈥� Flames coach Darryl Sutter said. 鈥淎 little bad luck early. I thought we had a really good start and they scored a deflection goal and a lost-coverage goal quick. I thought we were pretty resilient and battled back.鈥�
Kuzmenko scored on the Canucks' first attempt of the tiebreaker, firing a shot over Markstrom's glove. Dube and Backlund both missed on Flames' final two attempts to give Vancouver the win.
鈥淛ust trying to time it depth-wise and meet them at their decision point and let them make a move and hold my edges,鈥� Martin said of Calgary's three tries in the shootout.
In overtime, Markstrom denied Ilya Mikheyev on a breakaway with a minute remaining to keep it tied.
Horvat and Garland scored 34 seconds apart to give Vancouver a 2-0 lead less than 2 minutes into the game. Horvat deflected a Oliver Ekman-Larsson's shot from the left point past Markstrom at 1:14 for his 21st to get the Canucks on the board. Garland got the puck near the left corner and beat Markstrom from the left circle for his fifth at 1:48.
With the Flames on the power play, Backlund redirected a feed from Dube at 9:40 for his sixth to make it 2-1.
Mangiapane tied it with 3:51 remaining in the first as he quickly scored from the left circle off a pass from Nazem Kadri from behind the goal. It was Mangiapane's seventh.
鈥淥bviously not ideal to be down 2-0 right away,鈥� Markstrom said. 鈥淟eaving the first period tied hockey game was a great effort by us and unfortunately we can't get the win."
Lewis put the Flames ahead 3-2 at 3:51 of the second as he banked his own rebound from a sharp angle off Martin's glove and in for his sixth.
Dries tied it from the left circle on a Canucks rush off a pass from Hoglander to tie it at 5:31 of the middle period with his third.
PENALTY PARADE
After a road trip in which Calgary was short-handed 20 times in three games, the parade to the penalty box continued in the first period. The Canucks went on the power play twice. The Flames have been short-handed 115 times, tied for second-most behind Edmonton (116). St. Louis has been short-handed the fewest times at 65.
LINEUP SHUFFLES
Flames D MacKenzie Weegar (non-COVID illness) returned after missing one game while D Chris Tanev (upper body) sat out after taking a shot to the side of the head in Montreal on Monday. Calgary also got C Elias Lindholm (upper body) back after a one-game absence and inserted RW Brett Ritchie for rookie forward Matthew Phillips. ... For the Canucks, F Brock Boeser (non-COVID illness) did not play, which opened up a spot for Dries鈥� return.
UP NEXT
Canucks: Host Winnipeg on Saturday night to open a three-game homestand.
Flames: Host St. Louis on Friday night to wrap up a two-game homestand.
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The Associated Press
