Bo Horvat propels Canucks past Lightning

VANCOUVER -- Bo Horvat took advantage of a lucky bounce to score on a power play 7:46 into the third period and the Vancouver Canucks defeated the Tampa Bay Lightning 4-2 at Rogers Arena on Friday.
"I was coming through the middle and I was expecting a rim," Horvat said of his first goal in eight games. "It went off the shaft of Loui [Eriksson's] stick and then all of a sudden I saw it go off the goaltender and pop right back to me in the slot. I wanted to get there as quick as I could."

WATCH: All Lightning vs. Canucks highlights
Lightning forward Cory Conacher tied it 2-2 on a power play 3:53 into the third period but Horvat put Vancouver back ahead after Markus Granlund's dump-in attempt hit Eriksson's stick at the blue line and bounced toward the net. It surprised goalie Andrei Vasilevskiy and he kicked the rebound right to Horvat, who sent a quick shot over Vasilevskiy's shoulder.

Horvat had an assist on Alexandre Burrows' goal into an empty net with 46.4 seconds left for the Canucks (13-16-2), who ended a three-game losing streak.
"We've had so many bounces that haven't gone our way," Horvat said. "To get one like that, it was kind of a relief off everybody's shoulders that we are going to start getting bounces here."
Luca Sbisa and Brandon Sutter also scored and Ryan Miller made 25 saves for the Canucks, who bounced back from an 8-6 loss to the Carolina Hurricanes on Tuesday to end a 1-4-0 road trip.
"It was a statement game after our last performance in Carolina," Sbisa said.
Defenseman Victor Hedman also scored and Vasilevskiy made 20 saves for the Lightning (15-14-2), who have lost four of five and eight of 10. Tampa Bay was missing injured top-line forwards Ondrej Palat and Nikita Kucherov, who leads the team with 30 points.
"It was a pretty solid effort by a depleted group and I feel for the guys," said Lightning coach Jon Cooper, who lamented turnovers on the first two Vancouver goals and an offensive zone holding penalty by forward Alex Killorn that led to the third. "It's a self-inflicted loss is what it is. A couple bad turnovers end up in our net and then a marginal call at best, but a penalty 200 feet from our net and they just get an unreal break. It's tough to fault the guys and their effort."

Goal of the game

After Eriksson forced a turnover in the Tampa Bay end, Granlund made a cross-ice, backhand pass from his knees to Sutter above the left face-off circle for a one-timer that beat Vasilevskiy under the blocker.

Save of the game

Lightning forward Jonathan Drouin had a 2-on-1 chance 30 seconds after Conacher tied it but Miller stayed patient on a slap shot from the faceoff dot and kept his left pad up to stop it.

Unsung performance of the game

Canucks defenseman Chris Tanev returned after missing 20 games with an ankle injury and led both teams with 23:30 of ice time. He finished plus-1 with a blocked shot.

Highlight of the game

Sbisa has 15 goals in 414 NHL games but looked like a seasoned scorer when he lifted a rebound just under the crossbar for his first of the season to make it 2-1 at 13:25 of the second period.

They said it

"We felt like deja vu when they scored that power-play goal. We stayed focused. We didn't stray away from our game plan, which was big." -- Canucks defenseman Luca Sbisa on the Lightning goal that tied the game 2-2 that was similar to one the Carolina Hurricanes scored to ignite a comeback and defeat Vancouver on Tuesday
"You can't say we didn't play well. They had 10 scoring chances the whole game and we gave up three goals. You can't ask our team to do anything better than that. Any NHL team will tell you if you give up 10 scoring chances in a game you got a really good chance to win a hockey game, and we didn't." --Lightning coach Jon Cooper

Need to know

Eriksson had two assists to reach 300 in his NHL career. … Before the game the Canucks inducted defenseman Mattias Ohlund into their Ring of Honour.

What's next

Canucks: Host the Columbus Blue Jackets on Sunday (4 p.m. ET; SNP, FS-O, NHL.TV)
Lightning: At the Edmonton Oilers on Saturday (10 p.m. ET; CBC, SN360, SUN, NHL.TV)