Canucks win sixth straight, defeat Stars to gain in West playoff race

VANCOUVER --Elias Pettersson had two goals and an assist and the Vancouver Canucks gained ground in the Western Conference playoff race with a 6-2 win against the Dallas Stars at Rogers Arena on Monday.

Jason Dickinson and Brock Boeser each had a goal and two assists, and Thatcher Demko made 28 saves for the Canucks (38-28-10), who have won six straight games and have points in 11 of their past 13 (8-2-3).
"We don't want to let teams dictate and bring the game to us. It's up to us to take it to them," Dickinson said. "We've been playing that way for a good chunk of time now because we're desperate and that's what desperate hockey is."

Vancouver is four points behind the Los Angeles Kings for third in the Pacific Division with one game in hand. The Canucks are five points behind the Stars and Nashville Predators, who are tied for the two wild card spots into the Stanley Cup Playoffs from the West, and one point behind the Vegas Golden Knights, who lost 3-2 to the New Jersey Devils on Monday.
"We understand what we need to do," said Connor Garland, who scored for Vancouver. "You can't take your foot of the gas. We didn't give ourselves an easy ride to the end of the season here, so we understand it's a tall task."
Roope Hintz scored twice for the Stars (43-28-5), who lost in regulation for the first time in five games (3-1-1). Jake Oettinger was pulled after allowing four goals on 19 shots; Scott Wedgewood made 10 saves in relief.
"Half our guys [showed up], the other half didn't," Stars coach Rick Bowness said. "Puck management was terrible at both blue lines. Guys couldn't handle the puck, bad decisions, kept turning the puck over at the wrong time, at the wrong places and it cost us."
Garland gave Vancouver a 1-0 lead at 7:28 of the first period with a one-timer from the left face-off circle between the legs of a screened Oettinger. Garland has eight points (three goals, five assists) in a six-game point streak.
"The tenacity that he's shown has been really incredible," Canucks coach Bruce Boudreau said. "For a guy that's not blessed with a lot of size (5-foot-10, 165 pounds), he's winning an awful lot of board battles and he's getting that opportunity. When you give him the puck below the circles, he finds a way to make something happen, which is great and to get hot at the right time of year is even better."

Hintz tied it 1-1 with a power-play goal at 8:12 with a shot over Demko's glove from the left hash mark after a drop pass from Alexander Radulov.
Pettersson put the Canucks ahead 2-1 at 15:09, tucking the puck in from the side of the net after Sheldon Dries drew two defenders and made a spin move behind the net.
"I thought our energy with all four lines was really good, we played the right way a lot of the game and we took them out of it," Boudreau said. "They looked pretty frustrated to me, which is the way we have to play."
Boeser, who returned after missing five games with an arm injury, finished a 2-on-1 pass from Pettersson 1:23 into the second period to make it 3-1.

Hintz pulled Dallas within 3-2 on a shorthanded breakaway at 4:45, but Dickinson made it 4-2 at 10:33 scoring on a deflection.
"We didn't manage the puck well enough and we didn't break the puck out at that level we have to at this time of year," Hintz said. "We turned too many pucks over and then we didn't have that mentality that we're going to win every battle."
Vasily Podkolzin scored shortside on Wedgewood from a sharp angle 49 seconds into the third period to make it 5-2.
"A couple of bad goals? Yeah, there were and at the wrong times," Bowness said. "Obviously the first period and that fifth goal really hurt us. It's up to the rest of the guys to battle back and give them some run support and we didn't do that. … Your goalie gives up a bad goal, try to bail him out."
Pettersson scored into an empty net at 16:59 for the 6-2 final, giving him an NHL career-high 29 goals this season.
NOTES:Dallas defenseman Esa Lindell was a late scratch with a non-COVID related illness. He was replaced by Andrej Sekera, who was minus-1 with four shots on goal in 14:58 after being a healthy scratch the previous seven games. … Canucks forward Alex Chiasson, who scored nine points (five goals, four assists) during a five-game point streak, was a late scratch with a non-COVID illness. … Vancouver won all three games against Dallas this season.