Elias Pettersson scored on a breakaway in overtime and the Vancouver Canucks beat the Pittsburgh Penguins 4-3 on Thursday night.
Pettersson took a lead pass from Filip Hronek and beat Tristan Jarry for his 22nd goal of the season and second of the game. Pettersson is the third player in NHL history — and first since Daniel Alfredsson in 2007 — to score a game-winning goal in four straight games.
“I tried to get lost in the play and cheat a little bit, I guess for the offence,” Pettersson said. “It bounced right for me.”
Pettersson also had two assists and now has seven goals and 12 points in his last four games. His 12 points in four games is tied for the third-most points during a four-game span in team history.
Brock Boeser also scored twice for the Canucks, while J.T. Miller added three assists and now has eight points in his last four games. The Canucks are 31-1-1 in the 33 games Boeser and Pettersson have scored a goal.
Thatcher Demko made 31 saves for the Canucks, who won their fourth straight game and are now 4-1 on their seven-game road trip. They’ve scored at least four goals in four of the five games played so far. Vancouver has points in 14 of its last 16 games overall.
“Pretty resilient group,” Canucks coach Rick Tocchet said. “There are moments, obviously, we have to clean up. But I thought that when the pressure’s on us, guys aren’t getting rattled.”
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Sidney Crosby scored twice for Pittsburgh, including the tying goal with 28.2 seconds left to force overtime. Crosby has 24 goals this season and 574 in his career, surpassing Hall of Famer Mike Bossy for 22nd place on the NHL’s career goals list.
“I didn’t think the start was good,” Crosby said. “In the second and third we were better. It’s hard when you fall behind against a team like that. I thought we did a good job of staying with it.”
Marcus Pettersson scored his first of the season for Pittsburgh, which has lost three of five following a six-game point streak. The Penguins also lost their fourth straight overtime game, matching a team record.
Alex Nedeljkovic started for Pittsburgh, but allowed three goals on nine first-period shots. Jarry stopped 19 shots in relief.
“We made the decision to switch goalies mainly because we were trying to create a spark,” Penguins coach Mike Sullivan said. “We didn’t think our team had the energy that it needed. I thought Jarry played real well.”
Boeser scored twice for the Canucks in the first 6:31 of the game.
Elias Pettersson sent a pass through the slot to Boeser, who tapped it in from the backdoor post to open the scoring at 5:44 of the first period. Boeser scored a power-play goal 47 seconds later when he deflected Miller’s point shot behind Nedeljkovic from the slot. Since Jan. 4,
Marcus Pettersson scored for Pittsburgh at 16:20 of the first period, but Elias Pettersson helped Vancouver regain its two-goal lead when he tipped Hronek’s point shot past Nedeljkovic.
Crosby cut the deficit to a goal, 3-2, at 6:05 of the second period when he beat Demko with a glove-side wrist shot.
Up next for the Canucks, the sixth game of a seven-game road trip Saturday at Buffalo.
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