Andrei Kuzmenko scored twice as the host Vancouver Canucks erased a two-goal deficit en route to a 4-2 victory over the Colorado Avalanche on Thursday.
Brock Boeser and J.T. Miller also scored for the Canucks, who snapped a three-game losing streak. Vancouver goaltender Collin Delia made 29 saves, while Elias Pettersson and Oliver Ekman-Larsson both collected two assists.
Mikko Rantanen and Samuel Girard replied for the defending Stanley Cup champion Avalanche, who have lost a season-worst five straight (0-4-1). Alexandar Georgiev stopped 39 shots.
Despite trailing 2-0 midway through the affair, the Canucks roared back starting with the two Kuzmenko goals 1:59 apart to tie the score.
Kuzmenko put Vancouver on the board by lifting a nifty backhand from in close for a power-play goal at 13:15 of the second period.
He followed it up by netting his second of the night, and 17th of the season, when he crashed the net and pushed home a loose puck.
Buoyed with the momentum, the Canucks took the lead 34 seconds later when Boeser netted his seventh of the season by taking advantage of an egregious turnover that led to a scramble he concluded.
Vancouver’s lead was well-deserved, as they hosts outshot the Avalanche 11-0 in the last eight minutes of the second period, completely turning the tables.
Miller’s empty-net goal with 96 seconds remaining in regulation, his 14th tally of the season, rounded out the scoring. Not long before, Delia denied Colorado’s Darren Helm on a partial breakaway that could have tied the clash.
Rantanen netted his 26th goal of the season to open the scoring with one minute remaining in the opening frame. Given time from beyond the right circle, he rang a wrist shot from off the far post and in for the power-play marker.
Girard doubled the Colorado lead 1:49 into the second period with his third of the season, a long point shot that found the spot with Canucks defenseman Luke Schenn screening his own goalie.
–Field Level Media
