Two late Pearson goals lift Canucks over Leafs

Tanner Pearson scored the tiebreaking and game-clinching goals less than four minutes apart in the third period on Tuesday night as the host Vancouver Canucks dumped the Toronto Maple Leafs 6-3.
Pearson put Vancouver (18-18-3, 39 points) ahead 4-3 at 9:48 with a man-advantage tally. He pounced on the rebound of J T Miller’s one-timer and slammed it home from the slot.
Pearson doubled the lead at 13:36 when he swiped the puck from Alexander Kerfoot and beat goalie David Rittich from a sharp angle in the left faceoff circle, recording his eighth goal of the season. Brandon Sutter scored into an empty net at 19:24 for his second goal of the game and eighth of the season.
Earlier in the third period, the Canucks’ Nils Hoglander tied the game 3-3 at 6:43 with his ninth goal. Toronto had built a lead on a short-handed tally by Adam Brooks at 3:10, his second goal of the season.
Braden Holtby stopped 37 shots to earn the win for Vancouver, which also got a goal and two assists from Quinn Hughes in its second victory in as many games since returning to action. The Canucks were idle from March 24 through Saturday after 22 players contracted Covid-19.
John Tavares scored twice for the Leafs (28-13-5, 61 points), who maintained a four-point lead in the North Division despite losing their fifth straight game (0-3-2). Rittich finished with 23 saves on 28 shots.
Tavares got Toronto off and running at 16:55 of the first period. William Nylander skated down the left wing around fallen Canucks defenceman Tyler Myers. Nylander had his shot stopped, but he got to the rebound behind the net and fed Tavares at the right post. Vancouver responded with two quick tallies in just over 4 1/2 minutes of the second period. Sutter retrieved the rebound of Brock Boeser’s deflection off Travis Hamonic’s point blast and shovelled it by Rittich at 5:33, and Hughes followed with his third of the season at 10:08.
Tavares equalized on the power play at 17:14. With Vancouver’s Jalen Chatfield in the box, Tavares got all sorts of space on the left wing and wired a wrister from the faceoff dot over Holtby’s stick for his 16th marker.

Hurricanes beat Lightning to
maintain share of first place
Nino Niederreiter notched a goal and an assist in Carolina’s three-goal second period Tuesday night as the Hurricanes beat the host Tampa Bay Lightning 4-1 to split their back-to-back set.
The victory gave the Hurricanes (30-10-5) 65 points atop the Central Division standings along with the Florida Panthers - 5-1 winners over Columbus - while third-place Tampa Bay (30-14-2) has 62. Jordan Staal, Steven Lorentz and Jordan Martinook found the net for the Hurricanes, who are 6-1-2 in their last nine games and won for the just the second time in their last 14 in Tampa. Alex Nedeljkovic (11-4-2) allowed one goal on 27 shots to win his third straight start and move to 2-1-0 against the Lightning.
Tampa Bay got markers from Brayden Point - who scored in his third straight game - and 32 saves on 35 shots from Andrei Vasilevskiy (27-8-1). The Hurricanes started faster than in Monday’s 3-2 overtime loss - outshooting Tampa Bay 8-1 early in the first period - but both goalies were solid, including Vasilevskiy when he got a piece of Vincent Trocheck’s one-timer with 38 seconds left. Each club was slow to leave the ice in the feisty frame’s finish after Lightning defenceman Mikhail Sergachev slashed Trocheck as the buzzer sounded with the centre possessing the puck at the red line.
In the second period, the edgy play continued - Martinook and Tampa Bay’s Barclay Goodrow fought at centre ice after a puck-drop - but the Hurricanes scored two even-strength goals 25 seconds apart around the scrap to take a 2-0 lead. Trocheck led a quick breakout from the Carolina end and eventually fired a pass into the slot for Niederreiter. The Swiss left winger then buried his 16th goal at 7:48.
Staal quickly made it 2-0 when he redirected in a long shot by Dougie Hamilton as all the momentum seemed to be with the visiting side.
Some hard work by fourth-liner Morgan Geekie in the corner to Vasilevskiy’s left resulted in Lorentz’s second goal, but Point chipped in his team-leading 20th tally just 18 seconds later as the teams ended the period with Carolina holding a 3-1 advantage.
With five minutes remaining in regulation, the Lightning had chance to cut it to one goal on a power play and later with the extra skater on, but Martinook’s empty-netter with three seconds left sealed the win. Both teams finished the season series with a 4-3-1 record.

Results
Canucks    6-3    Leafs
Hurricanes    4-1    Lightning
Stars    5-2    Red Wings
Panthers    5-1    Blue Jackets
Islanders    6-1    Rangers
Bruins    2-0    Sabres
Penguins    7-6    Devils
Kings    4-1    Ducks