Andrei Kuzmenko scored on a breakaway 1:12 into overtime to give the visiting Vancouver Canucks a 4-3 victory over the San Jose Sharks on Sunday night.
With San Jose in the midst of a line change, J.T. Miller fired a stretch pass to a wide-open Kuzmenko, who went in and fired a wrist shot past Kaapo Kahkonen’s glove side for the game-winner.
Kuzmenko, Elias Pettersson and Ilya Mikheyev each had a goal and an assist and Kyle Burroughs also scored a goal for Vancouver, which completed a three-game sweep of a road trip that also included wins at Colorado and Vegas. Miller added two assists for the Canucks, who have won their last six in a row over San Jose.
Thatcher Demko made 32 saves to improve to 7-0-0 all-time against the Sharks.
Luke Kunin scored two goals and Logan Couture also scored for San Jose, which lost for the fifth time in six games. Erik Karlsson and Nick Bonino both added two assists and Kahkonen stopped 16 of 20 shots for the Sharks, who are 2-8-4 at home this season.
Vancouver, which started its back-to-back with a 5-1 victory over Western Conference leader Vegas on Saturday night in Las Vegas, jumped out to a 1-0 lead at the 7:26 mark of the first period. Burroughs fired a slap shot from just inside the blue line that beat Kahkonen on his glove side for his second goal of the season. It marked the sixth straight game that the Canucks scored first.
San Jose tied it late in the second period on Kunin’s first goal of the game. Matt Benning rifled a shot from the right point that Bonino deflected into the shoulder of Kunin stationed in the slot. The puck then caromed high into the air and landed behind Demko, who lost sight of it, and bounced into the net.
The Sharks took a 2-1 lead at the 7:05 mark of the third period on a power-play goal. Couture blasted a slap shot from the right point that deflected off Canucks defenseman Ethan Bear and past Demko for his 12th goal of the season.
Vancouver tied it just 69 seconds later on Mikheyev’s sixth goal of the season on a wrist shot from the slot. Pettersson then gave the Canucks a 3-2 lead 2 1/2 minutes later when he redirected Oliver Ekman-Larsson’s shot for his 12th goal of the season.
Kunin tied it with 5:15 remaining with a one-timer from the left side of the net off a Karlsson crossing pass for his fifth goal of the season.
–Field Level Media
