Miller, power play carry Canucks past Ducks, 3-2
J.T. Miller had a goal and an assist and the Vancouver Canucks beat the Anaheim Ducks 3-2 on Tuesday night.
Elias Pettersson had two assists and crossed the 100-point mark for the season, Brock Boeser and Andrei Kuzmenko had power-play goals, and the Canucks got their third win in four games.
Thatcher Demko made 33 saves in what was scheduled to be his final start of the season.
Drew Helleson scored his first NHL goal, Mason McTavish had a power-play goal, but the Ducks lost their 12th game in a row. Lukas Dostal made 33 saves.
Miller put the Canucks back in front 1:26 into the third period, positioning himself at the top of the crease to put in the rebound of Phillip Di Giuseppe's shot.
Helleson tied it at 2 with 4:28 left in the second period, collecting his first career point on a slap shot from the blue line. A second-round draft pick by Colorado in 2019 and acquired by Anaheim in the Josh Manson trade last season, Helleson made his NHL debut in a 5-4 overtime loss to the Avalanche on Sunday.
The Canucks relied on some precision puck movement on the power play to take a 2-1 lead out of the first period, starting with Boeser opening the scoring with 7:46 left off tic-tac-toe passes from Pettersson and J.T. Miller.
Kuzmenko got his 39th goal of the season on a breakaway set up by a stretch pass from Akito Hirose to make it 2-0 with 3:48 remaining.
The Ducks got on the board with their first power play, thanks to McTavish's one-timer in the right circle from Cam Fowler with 2:40 to go.
NOTES: McTavish did not play in the third period because of an upper-body injury. … Pettersson has the seventh 100-point season for the Canucks since joining the NHL in 1970 and first since Daniel Sedin did it in 2010-11. ... Ducks D Jackson LaCombe, a second-round draft pick in 2019, made his NHL debut. … Demko had the secondary assist on Kuzmenko's goal. It was the goalie's fourth career point.
UP NEXT
Canucks: At Arizona on Thursday night.
Ducks: Host Los Angeles on Thursday night. ___ AP NHL: https://apnews.com/hub/nhl and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports
