Canucks defeat Senators, gain in Western Conference wild card

VANCOUVER -- The Vancouver Canucks moved closer in the Western Conference wild-card race with a 7-4 win against the Ottawa Senators at Rogers Arena on Wednesday.

Tanner Pearson and Bo Horvat each had two goals and an assist and Loui Eriksson had a goal and three assists for the Canucks (32-32-10), who matched their season high with three straight wins. Vancouver is 4-0-1 in the past five games after going 4-10-3 in the previous 17, and four points behind the Arizona Coyotes for the second wild card into the Stanley Cup Playoffs.
"That's just crazy," Horvat said. "It just shows you never know what can happen. Down the stretch we have been playing some good hockey. We're just going to keep plugging away and try and make a run."
WATCH: [All Senators vs. Canucks highlights]
Jake Virtanen and Brock Boeser also scored, Alexander Edler had three assists and Jacob Markstrom made 21 saves for the Canucks, who gave up four straight goals in the third period before pulling away late.
"That was not our mindset," Eriksson said about sitting back with a 5-0 lead. "That was tough to let them score four goals and come back."
Max Veronneau, Brady Tkachuk, Oscar Lindberg and Anthony Duclair scored, Dylan DeMelo had three assists and Anders Nilsson made 33 saves for the Senators (25-42-6), who were also trying to match a season high three straight wins.
"It speaks to our character," DeMelo said. "We could have easily rolled over. It would have been some comeback if we could have pulled it off."
Ottawa is 4-13-1 in the past 18 games and has already been eliminated from playoff contention.
"Everyone I'm sure thought we were going to quit and I'm glad nobody quit in here," Senators forward Jean-Gabriel Pageau said.

Horvat scored on a power-play deflection in the slot to make it 1-0 at 14:06 of the first period.
Pearson scored on a strange play 32 seconds into the second period to make it 2-0. Alex Biega's high dump-in from center ice bounced near the left hash mark and Pearson batted it out of the air.
Virtanen made it 3-0 at 5:56 with a glove-side wrist shot on a 2-on-1, and Boeser scored on a power-play wrist shot to make it 4-0 at 17:00. The goal extended Boeser's point streak to an NHL career-high eight games (three goals, six assists) and was the first time since Jan. 2 that Vancouver scored two power-play goals in the same game.
The Canucks have five power-play goals on 16 chances over the past five games after scoring five in the previous 21 games and 60 chances.
"It's nice to get a lot of goals and get some on the power play," Boeser said. "We have a lot of momentum right now and we have to keep it going."

Pearson converted a backdoor pass from Horvat 57 seconds into the third period to increase the lead to 5-0.
Veronneau scored his first NHL goal in his third game since signing as a free agent out of Princeton University on March 12, deflecting a pass from the side of the crease at 8:54 to cut it to 5-1.
"It's obviously special to score a goal in the National Hockey League, that's a dream come true," Veronneau said. "I just wish I did it a little earlier in the game."
Tkachuk scored from in tight at 9:59 to make it 5-2, Lindberg scored on a one-timer from the left hash mark at 13:42 to bring Ottawa within 5-3, and Duclair scored on a power-play shot through traffic to make it 5-4 at 18:01 with Nilsson on the bench for an extra skater.

But Horvat scored his second goal on a deflection at 18:53 to give the Canucks a 6-4 lead, and Eriksson scored into an empty net with 40 seconds left for the 7-4 final.
"It was nice we made a push," Senators coach Marc Crawford said. "It says a lot about our guys."

They said it

"We had a big talk in the second period about kind of '(to heck with) the score, let's just go out and play and see what happens.'" -- Senators defenseman Dylan DeMelo
"It's always nice to have a night like this. It's been a while." -- Canucks forward Loui Eriksson on his third NHL four-point game and first since April 5, 2014

Need to know

Ottawa defenseman Cody Ceci left in the first period after aggravating an upper-body injury. The Senators, who play the Calgary Flames on Thursday, don't have any extra healthy players on the three-game road trip, but defenseman Thomas Chabot, who missed his third game with a broken toe, will rejoin them Thursday and could play Saturday against the Edmonton Oilers. … Canucks center Elias Pettersson had two assists, giving him a team- and NHL rookie-leading 63 points (27 goals, 36 assists) in 63 games.

What's next

Senators: At the Calgary Flames on Thursday (9 p.m. ET; SNW, RDS2, TSN5, NHL.TV)
Canucks: Host the Calgary Flames on Saturday (10 p.m. ET; ESPN+, CBC, SN, SN360, SN1, CITY, NHL.TV)