Sherwood scores tiebreaking goal late in 3rd, Lankinen has 37 saves as Canucks beat Wild 3-1

VANCOUVER, British Columbia -- — Kiefer Sherwood scored late in the third period, Kevin Lankinen stopped 37 shots and the Vancouver Canucks beat the Minnesota Wild 3-1 on Friday night.

Elias Pettersson opened the scoring for the Canucks on a power play midway through the first period to snap a 15-game scoring drought, and Teddy Blueger added an empty-netter in the final minute. Defenseman Filip Hronek had two assists.

Vancouver won its second straight and third in five games to move one point ahead of Calgary for the second wild card in the Western Conference.

Minnesota defenseman Brock Faber tied the score with a power-play goal at 7:12 of the third period, and Filip Gustavsson had 17 saves. The Wild snapped a two-game win streak.

Takeaways

Canucks: Vancouver was without captain Quinn Hughes for a second straight game. The star defenseman is day to day with a lower-body injury.

Wild: Justin Brazeau played his first game for Minnesota. The Wild picked up the 27-year-old forward from Boston on Thursday in exchange for forwards Marat Khusnutdinov and Jakub Lauko and a 2026 sixth-round selection.

Key moment

Sherwood broke the tie with 3:45 left in the third, scooping a pass from Hronek out from his skates and blasting it in past Gustavsson for his 14th goal of the season.

Key stat

Faber’s tally marked just the second power-play goal the Canucks have allowed over their last 11 games. Vancouver has killed off 24 of its last 26 penalties.

Up next

Wild host Pittsburgh on Sunday, and Canucks host Dallas.

------ AP NHL: https://apnews.com/hub/nhl