Canucks score three on power play, defeat Golden Knights

LAS VEGAS -- The Vancouver Canucks scored three power-play goals in a 5-1 victory against the Vegas Golden Knights at T-Mobile Arena on Saturday.

Andrei Kuzmenko had two goals and an assist, J.T. Miller had a goal and an assist, and Brock Boeser scored to extend his point streak to nine games for the Canucks (8-10-3), who have won four of their past five. Spencer Martin made 26 saves, including 12 in the third period.
"I knew this team could play better than it was playing," Vancouver coach Bruce Boudreau said. "You see it and hope you can keep it going and elevate it to a point where you're doing it automatically every night."

Jonathan Marchessault scored, and Logan Thompson made 31 saves for the Golden Knights (16-6-1), who were coming off a 4-2 loss to the Seattle Kraken on Friday.
"We actually were ready to play, which was encouraging. The first seven, eight minutes, we were the better team. We had some good looks," Vegas coach Bruce Cassidy said. "In hindsight, when you're playing your fifth game in eight days, if one of those goes in, maybe it gives us some juice and we're not chasing the game. Their goalie made big saves. Then we got ourselves in penalty trouble and didn't get the job done. That's when I thought they were better than us in winning races and much more competitive."
Boeser gave the Canucks a 1-0 lead at 9:22 of the first period, redirecting Oliver Ekman-Larsson's point shot on a power play. Boeser has 10 points (three goals, seven assists) during his point streak.
Miller made it 2-0 with another power-play goal at 18:58, scoring through a screen with a wrist shot from the top of the left circle.

Kuzmenko scored Vancouver's third power-play goal at 11:33 of the second period.
"Special teams wins us games," Canucks forward Elias Pettersson said. "We've played good 5-on-5, but we got three on the power play, which was huge. They didn't score on our PK (0-for-3). Special teams won us the game today."
Kuzmenko then extended the lead to 4-0 at 13:19 when he drove to the net and finished a one-timer from the low slot off a backhand pass from behind the net by Nils Aman.
Bo Horvat scored with 1.4 seconds remaining in the second period to make it 5-0. He shot past a lunging Thompson off a pass from Miller, who had deked the goalie out from in front before making the play.

Marchessault made it 5-1 at 16:43 of the third period, scoring from near the right post after Reilly Smith's initial shot caromed to him off the glass behind the net.
"It's been a really taxing schedule. Maybe it caught up to us this weekend," Cassidy said. "We couldn't find that second wind, second effort that we needed. It's not stopping. We have to mentally fight through."
NOTES:Miller has nine points (four goals, five assists) during a seven-game point streak. … Horvat has scored in three straight games and is second in the NHL with 17 goals this season. Jason Robertson of the Dallas Stars is first with 18. … Pettersson has seven points (five goals, two assists) during a five-game point streak.