Conor Garland scored the go-ahead goal early in the second period and the visiting Vancouver Canucks picked up a much-needed 2-1 victory over the short-handed Anaheim Ducks on Sunday amid a rough two-week stretch.
Nils Hoglander scored and Casey DeSmith made 18 saves to rebound from a brutal outing when he allowed eight goals in a 10-7 loss to the Minnesota Wild on Feb. 19.
The Canucks won for just the second time in their last eight games (2-5-1) to move back into first place in the Western Conference, two points above the Dallas Stars and Winnipeg Jets.
Alex Killorn scored for the Ducks, who saw a two-game winning streak come to an end. It was just the second time the Ducks won consecutive games since the week before Christmas.
Lukas Dostal made 29 saves one game after he set an Anaheim record in a win with 52 stops. Dostal returned to net with John Gibson out with an illness.
The Canucks took a 1-0 lead 1:37 into the game when Quinn Hughes worked his way through traffic and found Hoglander in front of the goal for his 19th of the season.
The Ducks needed less than three minutes to even the score when Killorn cleaned up a stray shot from Max Jones and scored his ninth past DeSmith on Anaheim's first shot of the game.
Garland's go-ahead score, his 12th, came on a pass from Nikita Zadorov while scoring past an outstretched Dostal to give Vancouver a 2-1 lead at 3:34 of the second.
In his first game since he agreed to an eight-year, $92.8 million contract extension, Canucks forward Elias Pettersson had three shots and no points in 18:24.
Vancouver earned the victory without defenseman Tyler Myers (lower-body injury), who missed his first game of the season.
Not only was Anaheim without Gibson, the team was without significant offensive firepower as Leo Carlsson (upper body), Mason McTavish (lower body) and Trevor Zegras (ankle) all were out.
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