Canucks 3, Hurricanes 2

Goalie, Eddie Lack was looking forward to beating his former team and he started out making several key saves early, but it was not meant to be as the Vancouver Canucks beat the Carolina Hurricanes, 3-2 on Wednesday night at Rogers Arena.

Bo Horvat scored twice and Sven Baertschi had a goal and an assist to pace the Canucks.

After a scoreless first period in which the Hurricanes could only muster two shots on goal, the Canes actually lit the lamp first when John-Michael Liles scored Carolina's first short-handed goal of the season about eight minutes into the second.  It was also the defenseman's first shortie of his career.

It looked as thought the Hurricanes would survive a very lackluster first period in which the home team thoroughly outplayed them.  The Canucks broke in several times on Lack with odd man rushes or breakaways, but Carolina's goalie was equal to the task and kept the game scoreless.

Later in the period, Baertschi broke into the Carolina zone alone and Lack had no answer for his bid, as he tied it 1-1.

The Hurricanes were starting to assert themselves more and outshot the Canucks, 13-7 in that period.

Horvat would break the tie 7:15 into the third as he made a power move to the front of the net and out-waited Lack and the Carolina defense as he tucked the puck in the goal, circa vintage Erik Cole.

With eight minutes left, Jordan Staal tied it up with a roofer which easily beat Vancouver goalie, Jacob Markstrom.

It seemed the game might go into overtime which would be three straight for the Canes, but young Jaccob Slavin mistakenly sent the puck into the stands with just 2:43 left, precipitating a two minute penalty.

The Carolina penalty kill had looked very good up to this point and had killed off 28 straight attempts, but Horvat found a spot all alone in the slot area and he made no mistake, rifling a shot just under the crossbar which Lack had little chance on, for the game-winner.

The Canes will return home and will next face the Columbus Blue Jackets at the PNC on Friday night.

Game Notes:

• After the extremely slow start, the Canes outshot the Canucks for the game, 28-21. Two defensmen led the way, Noah Hanifin and Justin Faulk, with four shots each.
• The Hurricanes were called for five minor penalties, including two delay of game - puck over the glass penalties.  It was very uncharacteristic of the team.
• The team won 56% of their faceoffs.
• It was reported that Victor Rask left the game early with an undisclosed upper body injury.  There was no update on his status as of this writing. He had 13:40 of ice time for the game.
• Event Summary