Horvat scores 3:12 sends Canucks crush Bruins in overtime

Bo Horvat scored at 3:12 of overtime as the Vancouver Canucks returned home from a six-game trip to defeat the Boston Bruins 2-1 Saturday night.

Bo Horvat scored at 3:12 of overtime as the Vancouver Canucks returned home from a six-game trip to defeat the Boston Bruins 2-1 Saturday night.

Brandon Sutter also scored for Vancouver, and Jacob Markstrom made 30 saves as the Canucks won for the fourth time in five games.

Joakim Nordstrom scored for Boston, which dropped to 0-1-2 on the Western Canadian part of its four-game trip.

Bruins defenseman Brandon Carlo lost the puck at the Vancouver blue line in overtime, starting a two-on-one break with Horvat and Brock Boeser. The two passed the puck back and forth before Horvat put a backhander past Boston goaltender Jaroslav Halak. It was Horvat's fifth goal of the season.

Sutter opened the scoring at 3:40 of the first period off assists from Jake Virtanen and Troy Stecher. Sutter got the puck between the right faceoff circle and the crease and, while falling to the ice between two defensemen, shuffled the puck under the paddle of Halak's stick.

The Canucks maintained the 1-0 lead until Nordstrom scored off a pass from John Moore at 7:45 of the third period. Moore's pass from centre ice sent Nordstrom down the right wing, and he used a defenseman as a screen and put a shot over Markstrom's blocker and off the right post.

The Bruins, who outshot Vancouver 31-22, had two good chances earlier in the third, but Patrice Bergeron rang a shot off the crossbar and Zdeno Chara hit the post.

Boston outshot the Canucks 15-5 in the second period but was unable to solve Markstrom, who was at his best early in the period, stopping four shots on a Bruins power play after Vancouver was called for a penalty for too many men on the ice.

The Bruins were without defensemen Charlie McAvoy (undisclosed illness) and Kevan Miller (hand), who were both sent back to Boston for further evaluation, as well as forward David Backes, who was a late scratch from the lineup. Backes took a hit to the head in Thursday's 3-2 overtime loss in Edmonton and reportedly wasn't feeling well after the morning skate Saturday.

Defenseman Urho Vaakanainen, the Bruins' first-round pick in the 2017 draft, was recalled from Providence of the American Hockey League and made his NHL debut.

 

(With inputs from agencies.)