The Vancouver Canucks beat the Colorado Avalanche 8-6 at Ball Arena on Wednesday night and for once, the ricochet mostly broke the team's way.
Brock Boeser had a hat trick and an assist, Teddy Blueger scored twice and Marcus Pettersson scored the winning goal after Vancouver's four-goal lead vanished.
After the win, the Canucks have now snapped a six-game losing streak by defeating the top team in the league, which says everything about how strange this game was.
Reuters reported that the Canucks set a season-high number of goals scored, while the Avalanche, who are still in first place in the Western Conference, spent most of the night chasing a game they were unwilling to take control of until very late.
I've watched enough Canucks hockey to know when one of those warning labels is attached when the game starts. It had it immediately, not in the general direction.
game flow
Max Sasson scored 29 seconds in, the Canucks' fastest goal since October 2024, and even after Nathan MacKinnon responded at 1:22, his 50th of the season, the Canucks kept coming rather than folding.
At 5:21 of the first period, Blueger scored short-handed on a 2-on-1 with Liam Ohgren. Jake DeBrusk then added a power-play goal at 11:38 after redirecting Elias Pettersson's cross-crease pass.
Gabriel Landeskog made it 3-2 late in the first, but the Canucks never let the Avalanche settle. In what was a surprising matchup, the Canucks weren't just making money, they were doing it in different ways, early on, on the penalty kill, on the power play and later in empty nets.
Bluger struck again at 5:02 of the second, this time alone in the slot after taking a centering pass from Sasson. Boeser followed with goals at 9:42 and 15:21, and suddenly the Canucks were ahead 6–2 against a team that had come rolling.
The second Boeser goal ended Mackenzie Blackwood's night, with Scott Wedgwood taking over after six goals on 19 shots, NHL.com reported. This is the type of score line that usually tells you the game is over. usually.
plot twist
Then the game went sideways for the Canucks. Sam Malinski scored 22 seconds after the goalkeeper change. Then Parker Kelly made it 6–4 just 14 seconds into the third, Brent Burns got Colorado within one at 13:21, and Malinski made it 6–6 after just 37 seconds.
The avalanche slowly obliterated that 6-2 hole, and it seemed as if the entire building had tilted in one direction. For Canucks fans, that kind of collapse has usually been the end, not the setup for another turn.
What changed the mood again was how quickly the Canucks responded. Pettersson scored 23 seconds after the tying goal, his first since November, beating Wedgwood from the top of the left circle to make the score 7–6.
That reaction was the greatest moment of the game. Boeser later added an empty-netter at 18:31 to complete his seventh regular season hat trick.
There is no point pretending that this will clear up the weather. It's not like that. The Canucks still blew a huge lead, still gave up six goals, and still looked shaky when Colorado pushed. But they beat the NHL's top team in their own building, with MacKinnon scoring 50 and the Avalanche trying to ride the spirit of another comeback. Sometimes you have to endure the chaos and move on. The Canucks will face the Minnesota Wild today (Thursday, April 2) at 8:00 PM ET at Xcel Energy Centre.
