In one of the most surprising upsets of the NHL season, the Vancouver Canucks managed to defeat the Colorado Avalanche 8-6 in Denver Wednesday night, despite nearly surrendering a commanding four-goal advantage.
Brock Boeser led the charge for Vancouver with his seventh regular-season hat trick while also contributing an assist. The victory marked a season-high scoring performance for the Canucks (22-44-8, 52 points), who snapped a six-game losing streak against the league’s top team.
Teddy Blueger found the net twice for Vancouver, while Marcus Pettersson tallied one goal and two assists. Max Sasson chipped in with a goal and assist, Jake DeBrusk also scored, and both Drew O’Connor and Marco Rossi recorded two assists each.
Goaltender Kevin Lankinen made 24 saves for the Canucks, who currently sit at the bottom of the NHL standings with the fewest points. Meanwhile, Colorado holds the league’s best record with 108 points.
The Avalanche (49-15-10, 108 points) mounted an impressive comeback from a 6-2 deficit, eventually tying the game when Sam Malinski netted his second goal of the evening at the 13:58 mark of the third period. However, Pettersson responded just 23 seconds later, and Boeser sealed the victory with an empty-net goal at 18:31.
Nathan MacKinnon reached a milestone for Colorado, scoring his league-leading 50th goal of the season. Malinski also registered an assist, Brent Burns contributed a goal and assist, and Gabriel Landeskog and Parker Kelly added goals for the Avalanche.
In other NHL action, Trevor Moore scored 1:56 into overtime to give Los Angeles a 2-1 victory over visiting St. Louis. Adrian Kempe scored in regulation and Anton Forsberg stopped 23 shots as the Kings jumped into the second wild-card position in the Western Conference, leapfrogging Nashville.
Robert Thomas scored for St. Louis, which has now lost consecutive games after a four-game winning streak. Jordan Binnington made 24 saves in the losing effort.
San Jose completed a dramatic comeback against visiting Anaheim, winning 4-3 on goals by Macklin Celebrini and Alexander Wennberg in the final two minutes. After pulling goalie Yaroslav Askarov for an extra attacker, Celebrini tied the game 3-3 with 1:39 remaining on a wrist shot from above the left circle, marking his 40th goal of the season. Wennberg then scored the winner from the high slot off a Celebrini pass with 31 seconds left.
Celebrini finished with two goals and two assists, Will Smith had a goal and two assists, and Askarov made 28 saves for San Jose, which sits one point behind the West’s second wild-card spot. For Anaheim, which leads the Pacific Division, Ryan Poehling, Alex Killorn and Troy Terry scored, Drew Helleson had two assists, and Lukas Dostal stopped 17 shots.
