Canucks beat Bruins for back-to-back wins
Posted February 13, 2015 10:03 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
VANCOUVER (NEWS1130) – For the first time in nearly a month, the Canucks have strung wins together. Shawn Matthias tallied a hat-trick to lead Vancouver to a 5-2 victory over the Boston Bruins at Rogers Arena.
Matthias got the Canucks off to a hot start as he opened the scoring just 1:41 into the game. Zack Kassian set him up for the goal with a beautiful saucer pass on a two-on-one break.
The Canucks made it 2-0 at the 5:03 mark of the first period, and again it was Matthias getting the goal. A Bruins defenseman sent an ill-advised pass into the slot, and Matthias picked it off before out-waiting Tuukka Rask and then scoring into the wide open net.
Boston got one goal back before the period was up. After a Canucks powerplay came to an end, the Bruins broke back the other way and Patrice Bergeron was stopped by Ryan Miller but he was there to knock in his own rebound to make it 2-1.
Vancouver re-stored its two-goal lead in the second period. Chris Higgins set up Radim Vrbata in front of the net with a no-look pass between his legs, and Vrbata deked Rask before scoring his 21st goal of the season. The goal gave Vrbata a career-best eight-game point streak.
The Bruins cut into the deficit 5:41 into the third period as Chris Kelly’s shot deflected off a Canuck before beating Miller. Vancouver came right back to score though, as Matthias completed his hat-trick just 24 seconds later. It was the first hat-trick of Matthias’ NHL career.
Jannik Hansen put the game on ice as he scored into the empty net with Rask on the Boston bench with two minutes to play.
Miller made 21 saves to record the win in the 600th game of his career.
The result gave the Canucks back-to-back wins for the first time since they won three games in a row from Jan. 15 – Jan. 19. They’ll try to make it three in a row on Saturday night as they’ll visit the Calgary Flames.
