Canucks pull away from Maple Leafs with 2 quick short-handed goals

VANCOUVER-- Elias Pettersson and J.T. Miller scored short-handed goals 44 seconds apart in the third period, and the Vancouver Canucks defeated the Toronto Maple Leafs 4-1 at Rogers Arena on Saturday.

Pettersson put Vancouver ahead 2-1 at 6:49 when he took a pass from Miller on a 2-on-1 and finished five-hole on Murray from in tight.
Miller then made it 3-1 during the same Toronto power play at 7:33. He received a stretch pass from Pettersson and beat Murray glove side on a breakaway.
Vancouver's penalty kill is last in the NHL this season at 67.7 percent.
"It felt great," Pettersson said. "Obviously, we talk about killing their play first, but we are happy we got two quick goals there on the PK."

Andrei Kuzmenko and Nils Aman also scored, Brock Boeser and Quinn Hughes each had two assists, and Thatcher Demko made 36 saves for the Canucks (25-32-5), who are 4-2-1 in their past seven games.
"The last couple of weeks we've been really building towards an identity, and a game like that kind of showcased a lot of it," Miller said. "Feels good to beat a team like that."
John Tavares scored for the Maple Leafs (38-17-8), who have lost two of three and remained five points ahead of the Tampa Bay Lightning for second in the Atlantic Division.
"It's been a little up and down for us at times," Tavares said. "We've put some really good stretches together over the last few weeks, but obviously we want to keep building momentum here, especially off of good efforts, good results."
Matt Murray made 20 saves in his first start since Jan. 17 because of an ankle injury.
"The game comes down to that first short-handed goal," he said. "If I make a save there it's a totally different game. But I felt pretty good overall."

Toronto outshot Vancouver 14-5 in the first period, but Demko stopped William Nylander on a short-handed breakaway at 8:08, kicked a backdoor chance from Tavares away at 10:52, and stopped another point-blank opportunity from Tavares on a power play at 14:57.
Demko is 2-1-0 with a 2.35 goals-against average and .937 save percentage in three games since returning from a groin injury that kept him out of the lineup for almost three months.
"He kept us in the game the whole game, but you're used to seeing that," Pettersson said. "It's good first to have him back and to see him like himself again."
Kuzmenko put the Canucks ahead 1-0 on a power play at 17:51 of the second period. He deflected Hughes' one-timer in the high slot that then bounced in off Maple Leafs defenseman Justin Holl.
Earlier in the period, Murray made a sprawling right pad save on Christian Wolanin on a 2-on-0 at 11:48. He then stopped Phillip Di Giuseppe on a breakaway with 40 seconds left to keep it a one-goal game.
"Matt's numbers aren't going to look good coming out of this one, but I thought he was excellent," Toronto coach Sheldon Keefe said. "In the second and third, any of the looks he faced were high-end chances, and I thought he looked really solid."

Tavares tied it 1-1 with a power-play goal 1:32 into the third period. He finished a backdoor pass from Nylander at the left post.
After Pettersson and Miller gave Vancouver the lead, Aman made it 4-1 by tapping in a backdoor pass from Boeser at 12:34.
"Poor execution and elite forwards on the other side that capitalized," Keefe said. "You come out in the third period and your power play scores a huge goal and gets you in the game and then lets you down the next time out, so you're torn on that one. … So in that case, their best players were better than ours."
Toronto dressed 11 forwards and seven defensemen for the second straight game and played for a bit without forward Auston Matthews, who briefly left after taking a slap shot off the inside of his right knee with 1:18 remaining in the first period.
"I felt like I was in a lot of pain there for quite a little bit of time and just let it kind of calm down a little bit and was able to get back out there," Matthews said. "I tried to grind my way through it. It didn't feel too great but felt fine to play."
The Maple Leafs also lost forward Ryan O'Reilly after he was hit in the hand by a Matthews shot late in the second period.
"Obviously, he was unable to return, so serious enough that that was the case, but in terms of a timeline for him we'll have an update Monday," Keefe said.
NOTES: Maple Leafs defenseman Timothy Liljegren practiced on Friday but missed his second straight game after being "a little shaken up," according to Keefe, against the Edmonton Oilers on Wednesday. … Hughes became the fastest defenseman in NHL history to record 200 assists, reaching the milestone in 263 games, one fewer than Brian Leetch.