Elias Pettersson and Pius Suter each scored twice as the Pacific Division-leading Vancouver Canucks began the new year in dominant fashion, rolling over the visiting Ottawa Senators 6-3 on Tuesday.
The well-rested Canucks showed off an array of skill, scoring goals in bunches, including two in a span of just 24 seconds in the first period to break the game open.
Ian Cole and J.T. Miller also scored for Vancouver, which sits atop the Pacific Division with 51 points. Goaltender Thatcher Demko finished with 35 saves for the Canucks.
Vladimir Tarasenko scored twice and Claude Giroux had a goal and an assist for the Senators, who began a five-game road trip with a one-sided loss. Goalie Anton Forsberg allowed four goals on just 13 shots before he was replaced by Joonas Korpisalo in the first period. Korpisalo made 11 saves.
Cole opened the scoring just 2:14 into the contest with his first goal in 90 games.
Suter made it 2-0 at 12:39 of the first, taking the puck off the back glass and using his left hand to drop it onto his stick before firing it home.
Pettersson forced a turnover in the Ottawa end, then poked in a loose puck from the side of the net at 16:34 to make it 3-0.
Nikita Zadorov took a shot from the point that deflected off Miller, and an Ottawa defenseman, and went into the net just 24 seconds after Pettersson’s tally to give the Canucks a 4-0 lead, and the rout was on.
That’s when Senators interim coach Jacques Martin pulled Forsberg from the net and replaced him with Korpisalo.
It didn’t take long for the Canucks to put a dent in Korpisalo. Just 55 seconds after the change, Pettersson potted his second goal of the game, with this one coming on the power play, to make it 5-0.
After Giroux’s second-period marker, Tarasenko scored back-to-back goals in the third period to cut the Vancouver lead to 5-3, but the Senators had dug themselves too big of a hole.
Suter closed the scoring with a long, bouncing shot that fooled Korpisalo late in the third.
–Field Level Media
