Conor Garland scored twice in his 400th regular-season NHL game and his Vancouver Canucks outduelled the visiting Vegas Golden Knights for a 4-3 victory on Monday.
Quinn Hughes and Brock Boeser each had a goal and an assist for the Canucks (48-22-8), and J.T. Miller contributed three helpers.
The Golden Knights (42-27-8) jumped out to an early 2-0 lead thanks to a pair of goals from Jack Eichel. Noah Hanifin also scored and had an assist.
Arturs Silovs stopped 20 of 23 shots for Vancouver in his third start of the season and Logan Thompson made 26 saves for Vegas.
The Canucks remain atop the Pacific Division, five points up on the Edmonton Oilers while the Golden Knights hold on to the Western Conference’s second wild-card spot.
Both sides put their special teams to use Monday, with Vancouver going 2-for-3 with the man advantage. Vegas went 2-for-4.
The Golden Knights called for a timeout with a minute and 55 seconds left on the clock and pulled Thompson in favour of an extra attacker.
Elias Pettersson sent a clearing attempt off the boards near the penalty box and the puck ricocheted down the ice, narrowly missing the far post of Vegas’ empty net.
The Canucks took their first lead of the night with 89 seconds to go in the second period.
Lightning doesn't strike twice but Conor Garland sure does. pic.twitter.com/1wlMydbDIv
— X - Vancouver Canucks (@Canucks) April 9, 2024
Thompson stopped a shot from Miller but couldn’t hang on to the puck and Garland came around the back of the net to tip it in for his second goal of the night and 18th of the season.
Boeser knotted the score at 3-3 at the 13:10 mark of the frame with a shot from the high slot. The goal was the right-winger’s 40th of the season, marking the first time Boeser has hit the milestone.
Midway through the second, Vegas went up 3-2 when Hanifin scored his 13th on a power play.
Playing his first game for the Golden Knights, Tomas Hertl collected an assist on the goal.
Vegas acquired the Czech forward from the San Jose Sharks in a blockbuster trade on March 8 but Hertl had been sidelined by injury until Monday.
The Canucks levelled the score at 2-2 midway through the first with their second power-play goal.
Hughes unleashed a bomb from just inside the blue line and, making use of ample traffic in front of Thompson, beat the netminder for his 17th goal of the season.
The defenceman helped his side get on the board earlier in the frame with a similar shot when Vancouver got its first man advantage of the night.
Hughes sent a rocket toward the Vegas net and, while Thompson stopped the initial shot, Garland got to the loose puck and swept it in from the side of the crease to make it 2-1 with his 100th regular-season goal.
Eichel put away his second goal of the night — and 29th of the season — 8:06 into the first.
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Jonathan Marchessault got around Pettersson and sliced a pass across to Eichel. Stationed alone at the bottom of the faceoff circle, the centre fired a wrist shot past Silovs to give Vegas an early 2-0 lead
The visitors opened the scoring on a power play 1:51 into the game.
Eichel fired a shot from the high slot and the puck went off the leg of Canucks defenceman Nikita Zadorov before sailing in over Silovs’ left pad.
HELPING OUT
Hughes registered his 200th assist over the last three seasons. The only other defencemen to hit 200 assists over three seasons are Bobby Orr and Paul Coffey.
Miller contributed his 400th NHL assist on Garland’s second goal of the night. He also hit a career-high 100 points (35 goals, 65 assists) on the season.
MAKING MOVES
The Golden Knights created room on the roster for Hertl Monday by placing left-winger William Carrier on long-term injured reserve and sending centre Brendan Brisson to the AHL’s Henderson Silver Knights.
UP NEXT
Canucks: Host the Arizona Coyotes on Wednesday.
Golden Knights: Visit the Edmonton Oilers on Wednesday.
Gemma Karstens-Smith, The Canadian Press