Canucks defeat Blue Jackets with three goals in third period

COLUMBUS -- Jake Virtanen scored the winning goal with 1:46 left in the third period, and the Vancouver Canucks rallied for a 3-2 win against the Columbus Blue Jackets at Nationwide Arena on Tuesday.

Elias Pettersson and Josh Leivo each had a goal and an assist for Vancouver (14-16-3), which scored three goals in the third period. Jacob Markstrom made 34 saves.
Seth Jones and Oliver Bjorkstrand scored, and Joonas Korpisalo made 22 saves for the Blue Jackets (16-12-2), who have lost four of five.
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Virtanen's 10th of the season came from a shot from the right corner and snuck between Korpisalo's pads and the right post. Former Blue Jackets forward Tyler Motte had the primary assist.
"I was just hoping for a rebound and I saw Tyler was driving the net," Virtanen said. "Just tracking the puck down and getting a shot. I ended up getting a shot and it went in. It was a lucky one."

That was the story of the game. Three of the goals came off deflections, including Vancouver's first two goals, plus the low-angle winning score.
"We had some really good chances to maybe go up by two, didn't finish a couple of times," Blue Jackets coach John Tortorella said. "That's the way it's going right now. Three really funky goals."
The Canucks won their third straight game after winning once in 13 games (1-10-2).
Vancouver twice trailed before pulling out the victory and hand Columbus its third straight home defeat.
"We always believed in ourselves that we could find a way to win," Pettersson said.
Jones gave Columbus a 1-0 lead with his sixth goal 47 seconds into the first period when his shot deflected off Canucks forward Jay Beagle.

"We had a couple of lucky ones. They had a lucky one, but I like how our team really dug in tonight," Canucks coach Travis Green said.
Markstrom kept it a one-goal game with a toe save on Boone Jenner's breakaway 3:44 into the second period.
"I wanted to make sure I at least got my skate to the post or past the post," Markstrom said. "I did that and sealed it."
Leivo tied it 1-1 at 8:11 with his second goal in four games since being acquired from the Toronto Maple Leafs on Dec. 3. The puck deflected off Jones before Leivo scored.
"It was a game of bounces tonight. You look at the goals they scored but they came out on top," Jones said. "We did everything else to win it."
Bjorkstrand gave the Blue Jackets a 2-1 lead at 9:56 with his third goal and first in 10 games.
"That could be a punch in the stomach for some," Markstrom said. "We stuck with it. The push was really good."

Pettersson tied it 2-2 at 16:56 when the puck hit his skate on the way in. He leads NHL rookies with 32 points (16 goals, 16 assists).
"One of my luckiest goals," Pettersson said. "I'll take it,"

They said it

"You see with this team there's a lot of want to win. That's what we did. We went out there in the third period ready to go, got the pucks to the net, the bounces were there. We were fortunate to win." -- Canucks forward Josh Leivo
"We need those goals in games like this. All our goals were greasy ones tonight. None of them were nice shots or anything like that." -- Canucks forward Jake Virtanen
"We certainly don't like moral victories but we did a lot of good things." -- Blue Jackets defenseman Seth Jones

Need to know

Blue Jackets forward Josh Anderson left with 68 seconds remaining in the second period with an upper-body injury. He crashed headfirst into the goalpost after being checked by Ben Hutton. There was no update after the game. Anderson is third on the Blue Jackets with 12 goals. … Jones has eight points (four goals, four assists) in the past seven games. … Blue Jackets forward Cam Atkinson has 21 points (13 goals, eight assists) in his past 14 games, and has points in 13 of the 14. … Pettersson has 10 points (three goals, seven assists) in a four-game point streak. … Tim Schaller replaced Adam Gaudette at forward for the Canucks. Gaudette had been ill but Green said at the morning skate he would play. … Markstrom had to replace his mask at 10:12 of the second period when some screws came loose after he stopped a Jones slap shot. … The Canucks won after trailing in the last 4:00 of the third period for the eighth time in their history. The last came Oct. 8, 2000 at the Tampa Bay Lightning. Vancouver trailed 4-2 and scored three goals in the final 2:55.

What's next

Canucks: At the Nashville Predators on Thursday (8 p.m. ET; FS-TN, SNP, NHL.TV)
Blue Jackets: Host the Los Angeles Kings on Thursday (7 p.m. ET; FS-O, FS-W, NHL.TV)