Canucks score five power-play goals in victory against Predators

NASHVILLE -- The Vancouver Canucks scored five power-play goals in a 6-3 win against the Nashville Predators at Bridgestone Arena on Thursday.

Elias Pettersson had a goal and two assists, Quinn Hughes had three assists, and Jacob Markstrom made 45 saves for the Canucks (11-8-4), who ended a three-game winless streak (0-2-1).
"We were on tonight," Canucks forward Bo Horvat said. "We talked about kind of what we had to do and simplify things, and it seemed to work. We were getting pucks and bodies toward the net and getting rewarded for it."
WATCH: [All Canucks vs. Predators highlights]
Vancouver scored five power-play goals in a game for the first time since Nov. 6, 2011, against the Chicago Blackhawks. The Canucks went 5-for-6 with the man-advantage Thursday; the Predators were 1-for-6.
Pekka Rinne made 12 saves on 17 shots for the Predators (9-9-3) through two periods. Juuse Saros replaced him to start the third and made the save on all five shots he faced.
Nashville is 0-5-1 in its past six games and 1-6-2 in its past nine.
"Things aren't bouncing our way right now, but at the same time, we're not making it easy on ourselves either," Predators center Matt Duchene said. "Whenever things are tough sledding like right now, you've got to do whatever you can to give yourself a chance. You take that many penalties, I don't know how many we took, six or seven, I don't know what it was. They got three or four great bounces on the power play and just put pucks to the net."
Ryan Johansen gave the Predators a 1-0 lead at 8:07 of the first period on a breakaway.

Pettersson tied it 1-1 at 16:34 on the power play at 16:34.
"The power play worked really well today, but mostly we talked about we can't play the way that we did [in a 6-1 loss at the Dallas Stars on Tuesday]," Pettersson said. "We weren't battling. We weren't skating. We weren't working hard. I think we especially did that for 60 minutes, and that's what got us six power-play [opportunities] as well."
Tyler Graovac gave the Canucks a 2-1 lead on the power play with a redirection from the slot at 18:34.
Calle Jarnkrok tied it 2-2 with the man-advantage at 4:56 of the second period, scoring on a one-timer from the left face-off circle.
J.T. Miller gave the Canucks a 3-2 lead at 7:07 with a power-play goal on the rush. The shot deflected in off Predators forward Viktor Arvidsson.
"We talked about doing the things you can control," Miller said. "Being physical, skating, doing the easy things, and I thought we did a good job of getting the puck in their end and obviously making them get tired and take penalties. That's a big part of the game."
Brock Boeser made it 4-2 at 18:05 with a power-play goal from in front.

Horvat extended the lead to 5-2 lead 27 seconds later on the power play when his shot deflected in off Predators defenseman Ryan Ellis at 18:32.
"[The power play] won us the hockey game," Horvat said. "In other games where we lost, it could've won us some games. It just shows how important power plays are and special teams. We did a great job on the penalty kill tonight."
Duchene cut it to 5-3 at 8:31 of the third period on a redirection.
"Five-on-five we were great," Duchene said. "… We shot ourselves in the foot I think."
Tanner Pearson scored into an empty net with 2:02 remaining for the 6-3 final.

They said it

"It was a weird hockey game, to be honest. There were so many power plays (10) in the first two periods. … It just felt like a bit of a choppy game. And obviously in the third, they were coming hard." -- Canucks coach Travis Green
"Change can always happen. It's at any point, but we're in a business of winning and results. We don't worry about that. I worry about myself and what I need to do to help this team be better. That's what everyone in this room does. And that's all you can do is control what you can control." -- Predators center Ryan Johansen on whether they think about changes being made during a winless streak

Need to know

The Canucks are 8-for-9 on the power play in two games against the Predators this season. … Predators forward Kyle Turris was a healthy scratch for the second consecutive game.

What's next

Canucks:At the Washington Capitals on Saturday (12:30 p.m. ET; SN1, SNE, SNO, SNP, NBCSWA, NHL.TV)
Predators: At the St. Louis Blues on Saturday (8 p.m. ET; ESPN+, FS-MW, FS-TN, NHL.TV)