{allcanada} Baertschi scores 2 to help Canucks beat Wild 5-4

 

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VANCOUVER, British Columbia (AP) Sven Baertschi scored his second of the night with 2:35 left in regulation Tuesday as the Vancouver Canucks beat the Minnesota Wild 5-4.

Brandon Sutter and Ben Hutton each had a goal and an assist, and Loui Eriksson also scored for Vancouver. Henrik Sedin and Troy Stecher had two assists each and Ryan Miller stopped 38 shots.

Ryan Suter scored the tying goal late in the third for Minnesota. Jason Pominville had two goals, Jason Zucker added a goal and an assist, and Nino Niederreiter had two assists. Darcy Kuemper got the start with Devan Dubnyk given the night off and finished with 30 saves.

Baertschi, who has struggled to rediscover his scoring touch that emerged toward the end of last season, tipped Stecher's point shot to cap a crazy third period that saw the teams combine for five goals.

Tied 2-2 through two periods, Eriksson gave Vancouver its first lead 1:09 into the third with his sixth of the season when he finished off a scramble after the Wild failed to clear the puck from their zone.

Baertschi, just back in the lineup after missing the last two with a foot injury, then tipped a shot past Kuemper for his third at 2:08 to give the Canucks a two-goal edge.

But the Wild struck right back when Zucker blocked Erik Gudbranson's point shot and moved in alone on Miller before beating the Vancouver goalie with a nice backhand deke at 3:20 for his third.

Kuemper then made a great stop on Eriksson off a feed from Markus Granlund just over a minute later to keep the Wild within one.

Suter rewarded his goalie by scoring his fifth on a point shot that went in off Gudbranson, who was attempting to block the shot with his leg, with 5:49 left in regulation.

Trailing 2-0 midway through the second with just 10 shots on the night, the Canucks came to life on back-to-back power plays to tie it. Sutter tipped Stecher's blast from the point at 9:23 for his sixth before Hutton pinched down from the point on another man advantage just 1:59 later to roof a loose puck at the side of the net for his third.

Hutton's goal marked just the second time this season Vancouver's power play had connected twice in the same game, and the first since Oct. 22.

Already without Christopher Tanev, who has been out with a lower-body injury since early November, the Canucks were missing the other half of their top defensive pairing after it was revealed Monday that Alexander Edler required surgery on a broken finger suffered in Saturday's shootout victory in Colorado.

With the youngest defense in the NHL as a result of Edler's injury, the Canucks knew they would have to play a simple, error-free game, but were instead exposed early in the first. Luca Sbisa, one of the veteran members of the current corps at age 26, misplayed a puck at the Vancouver blue line to allow Niederreiter to swoop in on Miller before Pominville was buried the rebound for his fourth into an open net at 5:07.

The Canucks thought they had tied it with 5:18 left in the period when Henrik Sedin scored what looked to be his sixth, but the call on the ice was overturned after Minnesota challenged that Sutter had interfered with Kuemper.

Pominville then made it 2-0 with his second of the game and fifth of the season on a shot off the rush at 3:24 of the second that beat Miller under the blocker.

NOTES: Edler is expected to be out four to six weeks. ... Henrik Sedin had two assists to give him 69 points (13 goals, 56 assists) in 81 career games against Minnesota. ... Wild D Jared Spurgeon celebrated his 27th birthday Tuesday.

UP NEXT

Wild: At Calgary on Friday night in the middle game of a five-game trip.

Canucks: Host Anaheim on Thursday night.

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