Canucks win third straight with Boudreau, defeat Jets in shootout

VANCOUVER --The Vancouver Canucks won their third straight game with new coach Bruce Boudreau, 4-3 in a shootout against the Winnipeg Jets at Rogers Arena on Friday.

Nils Hoglander scored two goals, and Thatcher Demko made 34 saves for the Canucks (11-15-2), who have won three in a row for the first time this season.
"It's big to get momentum when a new coach comes in," Demko said. "I've never been through it, but I can imagine it would be tough if a new coach came in and you lost the first handful of games. So just to get these three wins is big."
Elias Pettersson scored the only goal in the shootout for Vancouver, which has won five of six. The Canucks were 1-8-1 in the prior 10 games and fired coach Travis Green on Sunday.
"We've still got a lot of work to do, we all know that," Demko said. "We've got a lot of ground to make up."

Blake Wheeler and Kyle Connor each had a goal and two assists, and Eric Comrie made 33 saves in his first start since Nov. 19 for the Jets (13-9-5), who had won three of four.
Wheeler left at 8:44 of the third period after his right knee buckled in a collision with teammate Nathan Beaulieu in a penalty kill scramble atop the Jets crease.
"It's going to be a while," coach Paul Maurice said. "We'll get him looked at tomorrow. I'm not a doctor, but it's going to be a while."
Hoglander made it 1-0 and ended an 11-game goal drought at 6:29 of the first period with a between-the-legs in the slot and backhand over Comrie's glove.
Wheeler tied it 1-1 with a screened one-timer on the power play at 11:07, his first goal since May 11. (23 games). He could have had two more before the period ended, but Demko made a sprawling glove save on a backdoor pass from Connor at 13:01 and on a breakaway at 19:28.
"The only pucks that go in on him are ones where they're impossible to get," Boudreau said. "He must have stopped five breakaways. When you get that kind of goaltending, you're in most every game."

The Canucks went the other way and Hoglander made it 2-1 at 19:40 on a rush shot from the top of the left face-off circle that tricked in off Comrie.
"It's fun to see it go in," Hoglander said. "I don't think we played the best game, a lot of turnovers and back and forth, but we get a win."
Connor tied it 2-2 on a backdoor pass from Wheeler at 6:09 of the second period.
Conor Garland put the Canucks ahead 3-2 on breakaway deke at 7:06, but Mark Scheifele tied it 3-3 at 11:08 by one-timing a cross-ice pass from Connor.
"It might be as fine a game as I've seen that line play," Maurice said of Connor, Wheeler and Scheifele. "They've had big nights before, but they looked like they could just do it on every shift, and against good players. That was as good as I've seen them play, and they've been building to that. We'll get [Wheeler] healed up, we'll find other players and we'll find a way to do it without him."

Andrew Copp appeared to put Winnipeg ahead 4-3 at 13:44, when a rebound bounced in off his leg, but Vancouver challenged successfully for goaltender interference because Pierre-Luc Dubois made contact with Demko.
"I thought it was pretty obvious, to be honest," Demko said. "I saw their coach was pretty fired up about it, so I don't know, maybe he saw something different. I was pretty shocked it was called a goal in the first place. I felt like it was in my crease and I didn't really have an opportunity to have a second save."
NOTES: Comrie's last start was also against the Canucks in the second of back-to-back games. … Jets defenseman Neal Pionk was eligible to return from a two-game suspension for a knee-on-knee hit on Rasmus Sandin of the Toronto Maple Leafs on Sunday but missed the game and is still in NHL concussion protocol after being kneed later in that game by Toronto forward Jason Spezza, who was suspended six games. … The Canucks were without defensemen Oliver Ekman-Larsson, who is day to day but missed his second game with an undisclosed injury, and Travis Hamonic, who is expected to miss 2-3 weeks with a lower-body injury. … Wheeler has scored 10 points (one goal, nine assists) in a five-game point streak. … Scheifele extended his point streak to five games (nine points; five goals, four assists). … Connor has scored seven points (four goals, three assists) in his past four games. … The Jets were playing the second of back-to-back games. They won 3-0 at the Seattle Kraken on Thursday. … Canucks forward J.T. Miller had an assist and has scored eight points (two goals, six assists) in the past six games.