Elias Pettersson scored the go-ahead goal midway through the third period Saturday as the visiting Vancouver Canucks ended their eight-game losing streak with a 4-2 victory over the Los Angeles Kings.
Pettersson intercepted a pass near the Kings’ blue line and ripped a blistering shot past Kings goalie Cal Petersen from just inside the left circle for his 13th goal of the season. The center also had a second-period assist.
Adam Gaudette, Sam Gagner and Tyler Motte also scored for the Canucks, who won for the first time since Nov. 8 at Boston. Vancouver had been outscored 34-16 during its losing streak. Motte sealed the victory with a short-handed goal into an empty Kings net with 1:19 remaining.
Drew Doughty and Matt Luff scored for the Kings, who lost their fifth consecutive game at home and are 2-6 over their last eight games overall, scoring two goals or less in six of those contests. After a scoreless first period, the Canucks took a 1-0 lead at 5:12 of the second period when Gaudette scored his first career goal. He charged in and took a pass from right wing Jake Virtanen and slipped a shot past Petersen.
Just over two minutes later, Doughty tied the score 1-1 on a power-play goal. It was a rare man-advantage goal for the Kings, who entered with an NHL-worst 12.7-percent power-play rate.
Vancouver regained the lead at 2-1 when Gagner scored on the power play. Pettersson sent a pass to Bo Horvat on the side of the Kings goal and Horvat sent a pass out front to Gagner, who delivered his first goal of the season.
Just over four minutes later, the Kings tied it again, when Luff, a rookie, scored on a breakaway for his third career goal, all coming in his last three games.
After a Vancouver turnover in the Kings’ zone, Carl Hagelin sent a pass to Luff near center ice, and the right wing took it the rest of the way for the score.
The Kings and Canucks entered as the bottom two teams in goal differential in the NHL. The Kings were last in the league at minus-24, while the Canucks entered at minus-19.

Pacioretty, Fleury lead Vegas in shutout
Max Pacioretty scored twice during a four-goal first period, and Marc-Andre Fleury had 33 saves en route to his league-leading fifth shutout as the Vegas Golden Knights cruised to a 6-0 victory over the San Jose Sharks on Saturday night in Las Vegas. Colin Miller and Alex Tuch each had a goal and an assist, William Karlsson and William Carrier also scored goals and Reilly Smith added two assists for Vegas, which won its third straight game.
Fleury, coming in off a 2-0 shutout of the Calgary Flames on Friday afternoon and playing back-to-back games for just the second time as a member of the Golden Knights, recorded his 53rd career shutout, tying him with Nashville’s Pekka Rinne for 23rd place on the NHL’s all-time list. Fleury has a scoreless streak of 130 minutes and 25 seconds. Aaron Dell, who came into the contest off back-to-back shutouts over Vancouver on Friday night and St. Louis on November 17, stopped 30 shots. The four goals allowed in the first period and the six for the game were season highs for San Jose.
Karlsson started the scoring with the fastest goal in the franchise’s short history when Brayden McNabb’s wrist shot from the slot bounced off Dell’s blocker, hit Karlsson in the leg and then rolled under Dell’s pads to make it 1-0 after just 14 seconds.
Miller followed at the 4:40 mark with his second goal in two games, a slap shot from the middle of the right circle off a pass from Smith that went through Dell’s pads.
Pacioretty then scored two goals in a little less than seven minutes, the first on a wrist shot from the high slot into the top corner and the second from the left side of the goal after Dell poke-checked the puck from Tuch’s stick right to Pacioretty.
Carrier made it 5-0 early in the second period when he got loose on a breakaway and beat Dell with a backhander under his left pad for his fourth goal of the season. Tuch scored his seventh goal of the season in the third period. San Jose coach Peter DeBoer and left winger Evander Kane were both given game misconducts late in the second period for arguing a tripping penalty on Kane.