Hughes has 3 assists to reach 300 in NHL, Canucks defeat Ducks

ANAHEIM -- Quinn Hughes had three assists to reach 300 in the NHL, and the Vancouver Canucks won 5-1 against the Anaheim Ducks at Honda Center on Tuesday.

Hughes (376 games) is the the fastest player in Canucks history to reach 300 assists, and the third-fastest defenseman in NHL history, behind Bobby Orr (346 games) and Brian Leetch (368).

"It means a lot," Hughes said of the milestone. "I’ve had a lot of great teammates and people that have helped me. I’ve made some great friendships over the years and hopefully we can just keep going the way we’re going."

Brock Boeser, Kiefer Sherwood and Danton Heinen each had a goal and an assist, and Kevin Lankinen made 21 saves for the Canucks (6-2-3), who are 6-1-1 in their past eight games.

"We played a north-south game," Vancouver coach Rick Tocchet said. "I thought there were parts of the second we weren't holding onto pucks, but when we were I thought it really helped our game."

Olen Zellweger scored, and Lukas Dostal made 32 saves for the Ducks (4-6-2), who have lost three in a row (0-2-1).

"They’re a good hockey team," Ducks coach Greg Cronin said of the Canucks. "They moved the puck forward, they advanced it with 60-foot passes and skated off the puck. They just won the track meet."

Zellweger scored a power-play goal from the left point on a wrist shot through traffic to give Anaheim a 1-0 lead at 5:35 of the first period.

"Zelly' was great," Cronin said. "Young kid and he competes, and he's up and down the ice and he's fearless and he's confident. He doesn't care what the score is. He plays to win every shift. That's what I really admire about him."

The Canucks scored on their second power play of the opening period when Boeser redirected a shot from Hughes into the net to tie it 1-1 at 16:22.

Vancouver took the lead 58 seconds later when Sherwood scored off a centering pass off the rush from Erik Brannstrom to make it 2-1 at 17:20.

"It was a pretty good flow to the first period,” Cronin said. “I think both teams were kind of trading rush chances. There wasn't a lot of offensive zone time for either team, and then they got the power-play goal and then the goal shortly afterwards. You could feel the bench getting deflated a little bit."

Elias Pettersson tipped in a slap shot from Hughes to stretch the lead to 3-1 at 2:18 of the second period.

"I still thought in the third period we had an opportunity," Cronin said. "It was a 3-1 game and we either ran out of gas, or they just had higher quality scoring chances. We weren't able to get to their net too much."

Jake DeBrusk scored with a slap shot to make it 4-1 at 12:08 of the third. Hughes collected his 300th NHL assist on the play.

"That's a huge number," Tocchet said. "He’s a special player, he gets a lot of shots off. That’s hard to do, especially when teams are keying on you. Yeah, I’m not shocked."

Heinen scored from in close with 1:42 remaining for the 5-1 final.

"In the second, we got away from our game plan," Ducks captain Radko Gudas said. "We just couldn’t get going, couldn’t get quick shifts, and we got stuck out there in the D-Zone and that continues throughout the whole second period. I think that’s what got us off our rhythm, so it carried all the way through the third period."

NOTES: Hughes is third-fastest United States-born skater to get 300 assists, behind Craig Janney (356 games) and Leetch (368). … Hughes has 12 points (two goals, 10 assists) in 11 games this season and 17 points (one goal, 16 assists) in 14 games against the Ducks. ... Vancouver has won six straight against Anaheim. ... Troy Terry had an assist on Zellweger's goal to give him 10 points (five goals, five assists) in his past 11 games.