J.T. Miller scored on a breakaway 26 seconds into overtime as the visiting Vancouver Canucks extended their winning streak to seven games with a come-from-behind 2-1 victory over the Anaheim Ducks on Wednesday.
Tanner Pearson scored early in the third period for the Canucks, who have won nine of their last 10 games, with much of the winning run coming after Bruce Boudreau replaced fired head coach Travis Green on Dec. 6.
Thatcher Demko had 22 saves for the Canucks, who defeated the Ducks for the first time in three tries this season.
Sam Carrick scored a first-period goal for the Ducks while John Gibson had 35 saves.
The Ducks broke loose on a three-on-one immediately after the start of overtime, but failed to score. Miller pounced on a loose puck, sent it off the left boards as he charged up the ice and regained possession before firing on Gibson for his 11th goal of the season.
The Ducks took a 1-0 lead at 16:26 of the first period when Carrick got ahead of the play and flipped a shot over the right pad of Demko. Nicolas Deslauriers set Carrick free with a pass off the left boards from center ice.
The Canucks started to make a charge in a scoreless second period, getting 15 shots to eight for Anaheim.
Vancouver carried its offensive momentum into the third period, when Pearson scored at 1:21 to tie it 1-all on a shot from the right circle off a cross-ice pass from Quinn Hughes. Pearson scored his fifth of the season while Hughes delivered his team-leading 25th save.
The Ducks were forced to play the final two periods without defenseman Cam Fowler, who lost his balance late in the first period and crashed into the boards. He was diagnosed with an upper-body injury.
The Ducks were also without second-leading scorer Trevor Zegras as well as Max Comtois, Max Jones, Sam Steel, who were all in COVID-19 protocols. Vancouver’s Brock Boeser and Phillip Di Giuseppe went into protocols earlier Wednesday, joining Alex Chiasson.
–Field Level Media
