SUNRISE, Fla. — Bo Horvat scored the tiebreaking goal in the third period, leading the Vancouver Canucks to a 3-2 victory over the Florida Panthers on Saturday night.
Antoine Roussel and Elias Pettersson also scored for the Canucks, and Anders Nilsson stopped 24 shots.
Horvat gave the Canucks their first lead when he took a nifty pass from Sven Baertschi in the left circle and sent a one-timer in at 6:11 of the final period.
“To grind out that win, with that much composure and will to win, is huge. We were down some players and we pulled it out.” - @BoHorvat
— Vancouver Canucks (@Canucks) October 14, 2018
Vincent Trocheck and Jonathan Huberdeau scored for the Panthers, who remain winless through three games. James Reimer made 27 saves.
With the score tied 1-1, Trocheck put the Panthers ahead on a shot from the right circle the got past Nilsson on the glove side with 2:40 left in the second.
Less than a minute later, Roussel was awarded a penalty shot after he was hooked by Bogdan Kiselevich. Roussel beat Reimer on the glove side at with 1:45 left to tie the score 2-2.
Huberdeau gave Florida a 1-0 lead with 7:29 left in the second when he poked in his own rebound.
Pettersson tied the score 1-1 on a power-play goal with 5:12 left in the period as his wrister from the right circle beat Reimer. The youngster tied the Canucks’ franchise record with a five-game point streak to start a career.
Petterson left the game after being pushed into the boards by Mike Matheson in the third period.
“That’s a dirty play. The league is trying to protect the good young players and that’s just a dirty play,” Vancouver coach Travis Green said.
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NOTES: The Panthers celebrated G Roberto Luongo becoming only the third goaltender in NHL history to play 1,000 games in a pregame ceremony. Luongo reached the milestone last April 5. Luongo, who also played 448 games for the Canucks, is the NHL’s active wins leader (471) and stands fourth all-time in NHL wins. … Kiselevich made his NHL debut for the Panthers. … Roussel was activated from IR and made his season debut for Vancouver. … Horvat played his 300th career NHL game.
UP NEXT
Canucks: At Pittsburgh on Tuesday night.
Panthers: At Philadelphia on Tuesday night.
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THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
