Bo Horvat scored two goals and added a pair of assists the Vancouver Canucks defeated the visiting San Jose Sharks 6-2 Tuesday night to extend their NHL winning streak to three games.
Ilya Mikheyev had a goal and three assists for Vancouver (15-16-3).
Elias Pettersson, Brock Boeser and Quinn Hughes, with his first of the season, also scored for the Canucks who are 7-3 in their last 10 games. The three losses all came at Rogers Arena.
Horvat has 14 points (nine goals, five assists) in his last 10 games.
It was the first four-point game in a Canuck uniform for the Russian-born Mikheyev who spent three seasons with the Toronto Maple Leafs before signing as a free agent with Vancouver this summer.
Pettersson has three goals and five assists in the last three games for the Canucks.
Timo Meir scored twice for the Sharks (11-19-6). San Jose is (1-2-1) in the last five games. Defenceman Erik Karlsson earned two assists for his 16th point (two goals, 14 assists) in his last 10 games.
Vancouver goaltender Spencer Martin stopped 24 shots.
San Jose goalie James Reimer made 19 saves but remains one win short of 200 in his NHL career.
OH MY GOODNESS QUINN HUGHES 🎯🎯🎯 pic.twitter.com/5GL4ysnvsf
— Vancouver Canucks (@Canucks) December 28, 2022
Vancouver took control of the game with goals from Mikheyev and Hughes 1:40 apart in the second period.
Mikheyev gave the Canucks a 3-1 lead just seconds after the Sharks had killed a Vancouver power play. He collected his 12th of the season at 4:36 after taking a pretty pass from Andrei Kuzmenko and putting it over Reimer’s shoulder.
Hughes scored at 6:16 with a shot from the faceoff circle that found the top of the net.
The Sharks got a late power-play goal to trail 2-1 after the first period.
Horvat opened the scoring at 4:26 after Reimer stopped Mikheyev’s shot from the point. Horvat shovelled in the rebound from the side of the net.
Pettersson took advantage of some weak defence by the Sharks to give the Canucks a two-goal lead at 16:03. Left alone in front of the net, Lane Pederson managed two shots that Reimer blocked before Pettersson put in the rebound.
The Sharks cut the lead in half just 10 seconds after Pederson was sent off for slashing. Meir made it look easy, tipping in a Karlsson shot with 51 seconds left in the period.
READ MORE: THE MOJ: For many Canuck fans, the hope candle has stopped burning
NOTES
Midfielder Julia Grosso, a Vancouver native who scored the winning penalty kick for the Canadian women’s soccer team at the 2020 Summer Olympics, was in the crowd for the game. … It’s the first time this season the Canucks have won more games than they have lost. … It’s just the third time this year Vancouver has won three consecutive games. … With his first goal Horvat became the third NHL player to reach the 25-goal mark this season, joining Connor McDavid and Tage Thompson. … Vancouver’s previous two wins over San Jose this season came in overtime. … Tomas Hertl returned to the Sharks lineup after serving a two-game suspension for high-sticking Calgary Flames centre Elias Lindholm on Dec. 18. … San Jose’s longest winning streak of the season is three games, which they have done once. … The Sharks wore their retro jerseys, modelled after the 1974-75 California Golden Seals, the Bay Area’s previous professional hockey team.
UP NEXT
The Canucks go on the road for games against Winnipeg Thursday and Calgary Saturday before returning to Rogers Arena to face the New York Islanders on Jan. 3.
The Sharks return home for a game Thursday against Philadelphia then begin a three-game road trip with a game in Dallas on Saturday.
Jim Morris, The Canadian Press
