Jake DeBrusk scored two goals and had an assist, and the Vancouver Canucks held on to beat the Ottawa Senators 4-3 on Saturday, despite the ejection of star Quinn Hughes. This win gave the Canucks their seventh straight road victory.
Kiefer Sherwood also had a goal and an assist for the Canucks, who won despite Hughes being given a game misconduct for boarding Josh Norris with 7:31 left in the first period. DeBrusk, who had only three goals before this game, broke a six-game goal drought as Vancouver improved to 7-1-0 on the road, a franchise best.
Ottawa’s Brady Tkachuk scored his 10th goal of the season and also received a misconduct penalty with less than seven minutes left in the game. However, late goals from Claude Giroux and Tim Stutzle made the game closer for Ottawa, which is on a five-game losing streak (0-4-1).
The Senators couldn’t take advantage of Hughes’ early exit. Hughes, who leads the Canucks with 19 points, was given a major penalty for his hit on Norris, which caused Norris’ head to hit the boards. The Canucks were already without other key players: Thatcher Demko (knee), Brock Boeser (upper-body injury), and J.T. Miller (personal reasons).
Despite being short-handed, the Canucks killed off the five-minute power play that followed. They then took the lead when DeBrusk deflected a shot from Conor Garland into the net with 1:24 left in the first period.
Ottawa tied the game early in the second period. At 3:41, Tkachuk used his quick stick to push the puck past Vancouver goalie Kevin Lankinen (26 saves), who has won all seven of his road starts.
But the Canucks responded with three straight goals. At 10:37 of the second period, Max Sasson, in his first NHL game, passed to Teddy Blueger, who scored to make it 2-1. Less than four minutes later, DeBrusk and Sherwood worked a two-on-one play, with DeBrusk faking out goalie Linus Ullmark (17 saves) to give Vancouver a 3-1 lead.
DeBrusk then assisted on Sherwood’s goal at 11:19 in the third period, pushing the lead to 4-1 after Sherwood won a scramble in front of the net.
Ottawa’s Giroux scored a power-play goal with 3:31 left, and Stutzle scored the 100th goal of his career with 44 seconds left, after Ullmark was pulled for an extra attacker.
