VANCOUVER — Elias Pettersson bagged a Halloween hat trick as the Vancouver Canucks came back from the dead to beat the Nashville Predators 5-2 on Tuesday night at Rogers Arena.
The Canucks (6-2-1) took a 3-2 lead off a Pettersson wrist shot at 16:38 of the second period for his second of the game and never looked back.
Pettersson added an insurance goal with under three minutes remaining in the final frame to make it 5-2 for the second hat trick of his NHL career.
Nashville (4-5-0) had tied and then taken the lead in the first period on goals from Colton Sissons and Dante Fabbro.
Canucks netminder Thatcher Demko stopped 24 of 26 shots in the win while Kevin Lankinen stopped 22 of 26 in the loss.
Pettersson had tied the game at the start of the second period for Vancouver, after Canucks captain Quinn Hughes slid the puck across, allowing the Swedish forward to cut in and fire a wrist shot past Lankinen.
Vancouver had a stop and start opening period, with misplaced passes and a Nashville team committed to clogging the neutral zone limiting attacks.
Canucks forward Sam Lafferty opened the scoring after a shot from the point by Hughes found its way through a crowd and bounced off the fourth-line forward at 13:45 of the first.
But the Predators responded nearly immediately after Hughes gave the puck away and Demko went for a poke check only for Nashville forward Liam Foudy to dance around him, allowing Sissons to score his fifth goal of the season.
Nashville then grabbed the lead three minutes later after a long shot from Fabbro found its way past a crush of bodies and Demko.
The Predators had the best opportunity to open the scoring in the first period after the Canucks were called for a slash on Foudy at the start of a three-on-one leading to a penalty shot.
But Foudy slipped during the attempt and his shot when he got back to his knees was fired wide of Demko’s net.
NOTES
There was a moment of silence at Rogers Arena for Adam Johnson, who died in a tragic on-ice mishap in the United Kingdom over the weekend after taking a skate to the neck. … Ryan O’Reilly’s game against the Canucks was his 1,000th in the NHL, joining Toronto’s John Tavares as the second player from the 2009 draft to do so. Hughes’ assist on the Canucks opener equalled the 12th-fewest games by a defenceman in NHL history to reach the 250-point mark. He’s the second active defenceman to do so, along with Cale Makar.
UP NEXT
The Canucks travel to San Jose to play the Sharks on Thursday.
Nashville heads to Seattle to play the Kraken on Thursday in the second of their five-game road trip.
