VANCOUVER — Markus Granlund’s first goal as a Canuck gave Vancouver fans a much-needed taste of home-ice victory.
Granlund scored 1:42 into overtime to help the Canucks beat the Arizona Coyotes 3-2 Wednesday night.
Granlund scored on a 2-on-1 with Jake Virtanen. Granlund was acquired from the Flames in a trade on Feb. 22 for Hunter Shinkaruk. Those home victories have felt far and few between this season for the Canucks, who are now 12-16-5 at Rogers Arena.
Radim Vrbata and Luca Sbisa also scored for the Canucks. Jacob Markstrom stopped 32 shots for Vancouver. Kevin Connauton and Tobias Rieder scored for the Coyotes, who have lost nine of their last 10 games. Louis Domingue made 28 saves. The Coyotes led 2-0 in the second period but couldn’t hang on.
Leafs 4, Islanders 3 (SO)
The Toronto Maple Leafs defeated the New York Islanders 4-3 in a shootout on a goal by rookie right winger Nikita Soshnikov.
The Leafs, last in the National Hockey League, improved to 22-34-11. Center Zach Hyman, defenseman Morgan Rielly and center William Nylander scored the Leafs’ goals in regulation.
Center John Tavares, defenseman Nick Leddy and center Ryan Strome scored the goals for the Islanders, who dropped to 38-20-9 on the season. They trail the New York Rangers, who are second in the Metropolitan Division, by two points. The Islanders have two games in hand.
Blues 3, Blackhawks 2 (SO)
Kevin Shattenkirk’s goal in the sixth round of the shootout was the difference as the St. Louis Blues beat the visiting Chicago Blackhawks.
David Backes and Troy Brouwer scored goals and Jake Allen made 33 saves for St. Louis (39-20-9), which has won four straight games and nine of 12.
Andrew Ladd and Artemi Panarin scored for Chicago (41-21-6), which had won three of four. Corey Crawford made 28 saves.
Flames 3, Predators 2 (OT)
Mikael Backlund scored at 1:12 of overtime to lead the Calgary Flames to a 3-2 win over the Nashville Predators.
Johnny Gaudreau assisted on the OT winner and also scored twice in a span of 10 seconds in the first period for the Flames (28-34-5), who have earned points in three straight games on the heels of a seven-game losing streak.
Avalanche 3, Ducks 0
Semyon Varlamov had 37 saves for his second shutout of the season and 20th of his career, and the Colorado Avalanche beat the red-hot Anaheim Ducks. Nathan MacKinnon, Andreas Martinsen and Shawn Matthias scored for the Avalanche.
Colorado finished 3-1 on its homestand and moved two points ahead of Minnesota for the second wild card in the Western Conference. The Avalanche played two more games than the Wild. John Gibson had 23 saves for Anaheim (37-20-9).
Kings 4, Capitals 3 (OT)
Jeff Carter scored the game-winning goal at 2:50 of overtime as the Los Angeles Kings defeated the Washington Capitals.
