OTTAWA, Ontario (AP) — Elias Pettersson had a goal and two assists to take the NHL points lead and the Vancouver Canucks beat the Ottawa Senators 5-2 on Thursday night for their fifth straight victory.
Pettersson has 24 points on seven goals and 17 assists. He has five goals and nine assists during a seven-game points streak.
“This is a lot of fun, a lot of fun,” Pettersson said. “I mean we’re winning now. We’re playing good; most of the time, but I mean like today I don’t think we brought our best effort. I was not happy with my game, but we still found a way to win. I think that’s a strength we have now.”
Ilya Mikheyev scored twice, Brock Boeser and J.T. Miller added goals and Casey DeSmith made 28 saves to help Vancouver improve to 10-2-1.
“We’ve got to make sure we play a 60-minute game. … It’s only like 13, 14 games in, but teams are going to be ready for us so we’ve got to make sure we match that desperation,” Canucks coach Rick Tocchet said. “Ottawa was desperate tonight and they played a desperate game.”
Drake Batherson and Artem Zub scored for Ottawa, and Anton Forsberg stopped 11 of 16 shots. The Senators, coming off a 6-3 victory in Toronto on Wednesday night, dropped to 5-7-0 with their third loss in four games.
“Nobody in here likes losing and things haven’t been going our way," Senators defenseman Jakob Chychrun said. “Nobody’s feeling sorry for us. We’ve got to dig deep here and keep working as a unit and get ourselves out of this hole.”
Boeser got Vancouver going early with his 11th goal, scoring 15 seconds into the game. However, it wasn’t called a goal until 48 seconds later when it was reviewed at the first stoppage of play. Filip Hronek assisted to extend his points streak to eight games.
The Canucks made it 2-0 at the three-minute mark of the opening period after an Ottawa giveaway, with Mikheyev beating Forsberg between the pads.
Batherson scored for Ottawa with 1:45 left in the first when he got DeSmith moving, pulled the puck back and beat him high.
Zub, who returned to Ottawa’s lineup after a seven-game absence because of a concussion, tied it when his point shot was redirected in off Pettersson at 10:52 of the second period.
Miller gave the Canucks the lead with 1:52 left in the second, beating Forsberg off a drop pass from Phillip DiGiuseppe.
Mikheyev scored his second of the night ay 9:23 of the third, tipping in Pettersson's shot from the point. Pettersson fired in a one-timer on the power play with 6:32 left to cap the scoring.
UP NEXT
Canucks: At Toronto on Saturday night.
Senators: Host Calgary on Saturday night.
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