Markstrom makes NHL career-high 49 saves to lift Canucks past Kings

Jacob Markstrom made an NHL career-high 49 saves to lift the Vancouver Canucks to a 3-2 win against the Los Angeles Kings at Rogers Arena on Saturday.

"He stood on his head again today," said Canucks center Elias Pettersson, who had a goal and an assist. "We didn't have our best game. We made a lot of turnovers, but that's why you have a good goalie and he got us the win today."
Vancouver (20-15-4) has won four straight games after losing four of its previous five.
WATCH: [All Kings vs. Canucks highlights]
Anze Kopitar had a goal and an assist, and Jonathan Quick made 23 saves for Los Angeles (16-21-4), which is 0-3-0 against the Canucks.
"We've closed the gap from the last time we played this team (outscored 13-5 in first two losses)," Kings coach Todd McLellan said. "They owned us for six periods."
After Tyler Toffoli tied it 2-2 on a rebound at 6:46 of the third period, Pettersson scored 19 seconds later to put Vancouver back in front 3-2 with a one-timer from the left circle.
"They had momentum and they had a lot of good scoring chances. We got the leading goal right away, so that was huge for us to kind of get the momentum back," Pettersson said.

Los Angeles, which was coming off a 3-2 overtime win against the San Jose Sharks on Friday, had the first nine shots of the game before the Canucks got their first at 10:13 of the first period.
"They played last night and we knew they were going to throw a lot on net, especially since we're coming off the break and could be a little rusty," Markstrom said. "But I thought we played a good game."
Jake Virtanen gave the Canucks a 1-0 lead at 10:22 of the first after he intercepted Austin Wagner's clearing attempt and scored on his own rebound with a shot from the right circle.
Tyler Motte extended the lead to 2-0 at 19:32 of the first with a wrist shot over the glove of Quick from the left circle. Motte has scored in each of the past two games after going his first 10 games of the season without a goal.

Kopitar cut it to 2-1 at 11:52 of the second period. After Alex Iafallo's turnaround shot was saved by the right pad of Markstrom, Kopitar's rebound attempt initially hit the left post before he outmuscled Canucks defenseman Tyler Myers to jam in the loose puck. With the goal, Kopitar tied Bernie Nicholls (327) for fourth in Kings history.
"We're not happy with the end result, but I also think if we play games like that, we're going to win the majority of them," Kopitar said.

They said it

"It's not like we played a bad period, we just made a couple of mistakes and that's going to happen sometimes." -- Kings captain Anze Kopitar on the first period
"Well, the puck wasn't our friend tonight, that's for sure. Yeah, we fought it. We fought the puck tonight." -- Canucks coach Travis Green

Need to know

Markstrom, who was starting his ninth straight game, his longest streak in the League, won his 100th NHL game and is 5-0-0 when facing at least 40 shots this season. … Vancouver is 12-2-1 when Pettersson scores. … Iafallo has five points (one goal, four assists) during a four-game point streak. … Canucks defenseman Oscar Fantenberg played in his 100th NHL game. … Kings defenseman Joakim Ryan did not play because of an undisclosed injury. … J.T. Miller and Brock Boeser each had an assist on Pettersson's goal and has five points (one goal, four assists) during a four-game point streak.

What's next

Kings:Host the Philadelphia Flyers on Tuesday (9 p.m. ET; FS-W, NBCSP, NHL.TV)
Canucks:At the Calgary Flames on Sunday (9:30 p.m. ET; SN, SN360, SN1, NHL.TV)