VANCOUVER -- Brock Boeser scored a hat trick, and the Vancouver Canucks came back from down three in the third period to extend their point streak to 11 games with a 5-4 overtime win against the Columbus Blue Jackets at Rogers Arena on Saturday.
Blue Jackets grab point in Vancouver
Four different goal scorers get on the board for Columbus
By
Kevin Woodley
NHL.com Independent Correspondent
Boeser also assisted on Elias Pettersson’s goal with 59 seconds left in overtime, passing it through the crease for backdoor chance that trickled through Elvis Merzlikins.
“It shows a lot about the guys in the room and how he didn't give up,” Boeser said. “We still had the mindset after the second period that if we get one on the power play, we can go from there and come back. Take it shift by shift, kept drawing penalties and made it count, so it's definitely a positive. Then again, we don't want to keep putting ourselves in that position.”
Pettersson had two goals and an assist, and J.T. Miller and Quinn Hughes each had three assists for the Canucks (33-11-5), who scored three power play goals in a 5:17 span early in the third period to tie it 4-4.
Pius Suter had two assists and Thatcher Demko made 25 saves for Vancouver, which is 9-0-2 since its last regulation loss on Jan. 4.
It was the second straight game the Canucks overcame a multigoal deficit in the third period to extend their streak. They rallied from down two goals twice to tie before losing 4-3 in overtime against the St. Louis Blues on Wednesday.
“We felt confident,” Miller said. “There was no panic.”
Alexandre Texier had a goal and assist and Merzlikins made 28 saves for the Blue Jackets (15-23-10), who are 2-4-2 in their past eight games.
"It's tough when you're up by three and this happens,” Texier said, "We hate losing. At the same time, it’s a learning process for the young guys. We've got to try and learn from this.”
Pettersson scored on the power play on a wrist shot from the right face-off dot after a cross-ice pass from Miller at 1:11 of the third period to make it 4-2.
Boeser, who came into the game on a six-game goal drought, made it 4-3 on a power-play deflection of a Hughes point shot at 3:24, then tapped in a loose puck after a Pettersson shot from the right dot got behind Merzlikins on another power play at 6:28 to tie it 4-4 and reach 30 goals for the first time in the NHL.
“I don't know if it's hit me yet but more so that we won that game, that's really exciting for me right now,” said Boeser, whose previous career best was 29 goals as a rookie in 2017-18. “It means a lot. It's obviously something that I've wanted to get to for a while, so to get there is great, but I couldn't have done it without my teammates and how we're playing and how we've created this standard.”
Columbus had a chance to retake the lead but only got one shot on a five-minute power play after Vancouver defenseman Tyler Myers was given a five-minute penalty and game misconduct for an elbow on Sean Kuraly at 11:55.
“The five-minute power play we needed to create some momentum,” Columbus coach Pascal Vincent said. “We have routes and breakouts. There is a mindset behind it. We just didn't have the same speed. If we don't have speed through the neutral zone it’s going to be really hard to attack. We just weren’t connected. For the rest of the period, we were pretty good.”
Texier gave the Blue Jackets a 1-0 lead 4:30 into the second period when he scored on a short-handed 2-on-1 after a Pettersson turnover inside the blue line.
It was Texier’s second short-handed goal in as many games after ending a team-record 93-game streak without one in a 5-2 win against the Calgary Flames on Thursday. A lot of those positives on the penalty kill were undone in the third period as Vancouver finished 3-for-4 on the power play.
“We have been doing a pretty good job on the PK but we have to be consistent,” Texier said. “The game is quick. We have to do a better job on the PK. It's a learning process.”
Kuraly made it 2-0 at 6:14 by taking a pass from Texier below the goal line and shooting against the grain past Demko’s glove from inside the left dot.
Boeser made it 2-1 at 15:20 by driving to the net and redirecting a Miller pass off the win over Merzlikins from just above top of the crease to make it 2-1.
Jake Bean restored the two-goal lead at 17:27 by beating Demko on the blocker side from the high slot shortly after Miller lost the puck in his own zone.
Kirill Marchenko scored 58 seconds later when his redirection in the high slot hit the post and bounced in off the backside of a sliding Demko to make it 4-1.
“Obviously, I was a lot to blame there but that second period we just turned the puck over way too much, got away from our game,” Miller said. “Obviously a response. You work hard to draw penalties and it's nice to see the power play get rewarded and then the penalty kill come up with a gigantic kill where I don't the guys even let them get set up, which was great.”
NOTES: Columbus was without defenseman Adam Boqvist, who was placed on injured reserve on Saturday after getting hit in face with a puck while on the bench midway through the third period of a 5-2 win against the Calgary Flames on Thursday. … It was the eighth time this season Hughes had three assists in one game. Only Bobby Orr, who did it four times, including a high of 13 times in 1973-74, and Ray Bourque, who did it nine times in 1993-94, have more three-assist games in a season for defensemen. Hughes also became the third player in the NHL with 50 assists this season. … It was the fourth three-goal, third-period comeback win in Canucks history and the first for Vancouver since Feb. 18, 2003.
