Elias Pettersson Leads Canucks to 4-3 Win Over Sharks – Hockey Writers – Vancouver Canucks

The Vancouver Canucks welcomed the San Jose Sharks to Rogers Arena on Monday for both teams' final practice before the holiday break. Coming off three and four game losing streaks, it's been a battle of struggling teams hoping to head into Christmas on a positive note. When the dust settled, it was the Canucks who broke their streak with a 4-3 victory after going into the third with a 4-1 lead. The Sharks did everything they could to come back but failed, and now they are going into the break having lost five games in a row.

Elias Pettersson led the Canucks with two goals – his first points in six games – with Brock Boeser and Kiefer Sherwood adding two more. Quinn Hughes had another high-scoring effort with two assists, increasing his total to 42, three behind the leader, Cale Makar. The Sharks were very upset by Macklin Celebrini from North Vancouver as he had two assists during his first visit to Rogers Arena. Unfortunately, neither team saw a goal scorer finish the game as Eklund missed the final two periods and Pettersson exited early in the third. The good thing is that they have a few days to rest and recover from whatever is ailing them.

Recap of the game

The Sharks held the edge for nearly half of the first half and were rewarded with a 5-on-3 power play when William Eklund scored on a Mikael Granlund goal past Thatcher Demko at 11:36. The Canucks answered at 14:10 with Boeser's third goal in two games, when he scored 11 times past Yaroslav Askarov after Quinn Hughes tipped it in. Shortly after, Myers and Barclay Goodrow dropped the gloves in response to Myers leveling Eklund on the Sharks' first power play. At the end of the period, the Sharks took the lead with 10-6 shots.

The middle frame was uneventful — except for another battle, this time between Danton Heinen and Ty Dellandrea — until the 16:42 mark and 1:10 after that. First, Sherwood ripped his 12th over Askarov's blocker after a nice pass from Teddy Blueger, then it was Pettersson in the ninth who stood up after the coach's goaltending challenge, and finally Pettersson repeated the 5-on-3, scoring the 10th. with a laser top corner over Askarov's glove. Between 16:42 and 17:52, the game that ended 1-1 turned into 4-1 for the home team going into the third.

The third period was very good for the Sharks as they tried to cut off three goals from the Canucks. They ended up outscoring the Canucks 15-5 and scored two goals, one by Cody Ceci that was tricked by Demko after it was deflected by Noah Juulsen and the other by Luke Kunin with less than five seconds left in the game. Unfortunately for the Sharks their third goal came too late and the Canucks took the lead with their first win in four games 4-3.

Demko picked up his second win since returning from injury with a 27-save effort while Askarov made 20 saves on the other end and fell for the first time in regulation after dropping two in overtime earlier in the season.

What's Next for the Canucks & Sharks?

The Canucks will resume their schedule on Saturday (Dec. 28) against the Seattle Kraken in the final game of this mini-homestand. Meanwhile, the Sharks will return to the SAP Center on Friday (Dec. 27) to host the Vegas Golden Knights.