VANCOUVER – Radim Vrbata had two goals and an assist Tuesday as the Vancouver Canucks defeated the Winnipeg Jets 5-2.
Chris Higgins added a goal and an assist and Yannick Weber also scored for Vancouver (43-26-4), which got 26 saves from Eddie Lack.
Henrik Sedin added an empty netter and two assists for the Canucks, who picked up their third straight win and sit second in the Pacific Division, four points up on the Calgary Flames.
Daniel Sedin also had two assists.
Jiri Tlusty and Blake Wheeler replied for Winnipeg (38-24-12), which occupies the second wild-card spot in the Western Conference, three points back of the Minnesota Wild and two ahead of the Los Angeles Kings, who have a game in hand.
Michael Hutchinson stopped 25 shots for the Jets, who saw their five-game winning streak come to an end.
Coming off a weekend road sweep of the Kings and Arizona Coyotes, the Canucks trailed 2-0 early in the second after Wheeler banged home his 23rd of the season at 5:07 following a dominant shift.
After looking half-asleep at times during the game’s first 30 minutes, Vancouver came to life midway through the second period, scoring three times in a span of 8:03 to grab the lead.
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Higgins buried his 10th on a shot that squeezed past Hutchinson at 10:57 before Weber tied it up at 16:29 on the power play, blasting a one-timer for his eighth.
The Canucks completed the turnaround with a minute left in the period when Henrik Sedin chipped the puck down the sideboards to Vrbata, who outwaited Hutchinson before firing home his team-leading 28th.
Hutchinson kept his team in it with a breakaway save on Bo Horvat with 11 minutes to go in the third, but the Jets were unable to find an equalizer, with Lack making two big saves on Michael Frolik and another on Mark Scheifele late before Henrik scored his 17th into an empty net.
Vrbata then added a second empty-net goal to round out the scoring.
Playing their second game in has many nights after Monday’s road win over the Edmonton Oilers and still without centre Bryan Little and defenceman Dustin Byfuglien because of injury, the Jets grabbed a 1-0 lead at 2:17 of the first when Tlusty scored his first goal in a Winnipeg uniform. Eric O’Dell jumped on a turnover and fed Tlusty for his 14th of the season and first in 12 games since coming over in a deal with the Carolina Hurricanes before the trade deadline.
The Canucks had a couple of great chances to even the score, but Hutchinson was equal to the task in his first start since March 12. The Winnipeg goalie, who watched from the bench as Ondrej Pavelec won the last five, made a great rebound save on Nick Bonino before getting a piece of a Dan Hamhuis one-timer later in the period.
Notes: Vrbata now has seven points over his last three games (three goals, four assists) … The Canucks announced earlier Tuesday that defenceman Christopher Tanev has agreed to a five-year contract extension worth US$22.25 million. … The Jets open a four-game homestand Thursday against the Montreal Canadiens. The Canucks continue their three-game homestand the same night against the Colorado Avalanche.
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