*Photo from WVNews*
It's never too early for important division battles in the league. Nils Hoglander had a two assist game, Andrei Kuzmenko scored the winning goal, and the Vancouver Canucks defeated the Calgary Flames with a 4-3 shootout win on Wednesday night in Calgary.
Getting the start in goal for the Canucks was Spencer Martin, who had another solid performance after being thrust into the starting role. Martin stopped 35 of 38 shots the Flames fired at him, recording a .921 save percentage in the road win to improve his record to 9-3-1.
Martin said after the game that "It's never too early to start battling for important division points. We want to be in the playoffs, obviously. They were, I think, four points ahead of us, and that's a really big time to come up with two points."
Starting the scoring for the Canucks was Bo Horvat, giving the Canucks a 1-0 lead just 1:14 into the game on his 21st goal of the season. Conor Garland scored just 34 seconds later, quickly doubling the lead to 2-0. Mikael Backlund scored for the Flames to cut the deficit to 2-1 before Andrew Mangiapane tied the game 2-2 after one period.
In the second period, Calgary surged to the lead thanks to Trevor Lewis, giving them a 3-2 lead 3:51 into the period, assisted by MacKenzie Weegar and goalie Jacob Markstrom. Sheldon Dries then scored his 3rd goal of the season at the 5:31 mark of the second, tying the game for the Canucks 3-3. No more goals were scored until the shootout, when Kuzmenko scored the only goal of the shootout to give the Canucks a 4-3 win.
Horvat said after the game that "It's a tough building to come into, they got a good team over there. Obviously, I'd like to not give up a two-goal lead but at the same time we didn't panic. In previous games or early in the year, we might have a little panic in our game, Dries scored a big goal and I thought we did a good job after that, kind of limiting their Grade-As. Overall, it was a great game and Marty was fantastic."
The win continues a hot streak for the Canucks, improving to .500 on the season thanks to a 7-3-0 stretch in their last 10 games. Hoglander had a two assist game to lead the Canucks on the scoresheet, and Kuzmenko record an assist on the game tying goal from Dries in addition to the shootout goal.
Starting opposite Martin for the Flames was Markstrom, who got an assist on the Lewis goal in the second. Markstrom saved 24 out of the 27 shots on goal he saw from the Canucks, which was good for a .889 save percentage, his record dropping to 8-7-4.
Flames center Nazem Kadri said of the loss that "You've just got to keep your chin up. It's a long season, and getting down on yourself or thinking you're better than you are is, both sides of the spectrum can be dangerous. With some experience you learn that, and I think we've got the right attitude in here."
Up next, the Flames resume play with a Friday night tilt with the St. Louis Blues, with Dan Vladar the projected starter. The Canucks square off against the Winnipeg Jets on Saturday night, with Martin expected to start.
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