San Jose Sharks at Vancouver Canucks

Horvat has 2 goals and 2 assists, Canucks beat Sharks 6-2

Ilya Mikheyev had a goal and three assists, and Elias Pettersson, Brock Boeser and Quinn Hughes, with his first of the season, also scored for the Canucks. They are 7-3 in their last 10 games, with all three losses at home, and 16-15-3 overall.

“I feel like we’ve been playing the right way,” Boeser said. “We’re kind of getting that swagger back. That’s a big part of our team. When we don’t have that swagger, sometimes (things) get kind of dead. We’ve just got to keep playing the right way.”

Coach Bruce Boudreau hesitated when asked about the Canucks’ swagger.

“I don’t like that word,” he said. “I think the team is starting to believe in themselves a little bit and I think that’s important.”

Horvat has 14 points (nine goals, five assists) in his last 10 games.

“It’s awesome,” Boeser said about Horvat. “It’s really fun to watch.”

Timo Meir scored twice for San Jose and James Reimer made 19 saves. Reimer is a victory short of 200 in his NHL career.

“I thought we had chances to climb back in,” San Jose coach David Quinn said. “I don’t like what went on in our own end. We’ve got to fix that in practice and get back to playing good structural defence.”

Vancouver took control of the game with goals from Mikheyev and Hughes 1:40 apart in the second period.

Mikheyev gave the Canucks a 3-1 lead just seconds after the Sharks killed a Vancouver power play. He scored his 12th of the season at 4:36, taking a pass from Andrei Kuzmenko and putting it over Reimer’s shoulder. Hughes scored at 6:16 with a shot from the faceoff circle that found the top of the net.

UP NEXT

Sharks: Host Philadelphia on Thursday night.

Canucks: At Winnipeg on Thursday night.

VAN leads series 3-0