For the 2nd consecutive night, the Vancouver Canucks blew a two-goal lead in California.
Wednesday night the Canucks got away with it. After the LA Kings came back to tie the game with two goals in the 3rd period, Conor Garland won it for the visitors in overtime.
Thursday night the opposition’s comeback didn’t take so long.
In Anaheim, Tyler Myers opened the scoring for the Canucks about 22-hours after taking a shot in the neck in Los Angeles and leaving the game hunched over in pain during overtime. He then assisted on Pius Suter’s 1st period tally to give the visitors a 2-0 lead.
The Ducks tied it in the 2nd period on goals by Frank Vatrano and Cutter Gauthier less than four minutes apart. Gauthier, the NHL’s 3rd leading goal scorer among rookies (12), scored at 9:09.
From there, the home club continued to push. Off a successful penalty kill, the Ducks took the only lead they’d need on a goal from Ryan Strome at 18:41 of the 2nd period.
Anaheim was looking to win for the eighth time out of their last eleven games and they’d get there when defenceman Jackson LaCombe put the game away with his 10th goal of the season at 15:46 of the 3rd period.
Troy Terry added an empty netter.
Arturs Silovs took the loss in net for Vancouver.
It was the first defeat for the Canucks this season in the state of California.
Vancouver wraps up its five-game road trip with a visit to the Seattle Kraken on Saturday night.
