Baertschi goal lifts Canucks past Wild
VANCOUVER, British Columbia -- Sven Baertschi scored with 2:35 remaining in the third period as the Vancouver Canucks battled back from an early deficit to defeat the Minnesota Wild 5-4 on Tuesday night.
Baertschi deflected a shot from the point by Troy Stecher past Wild goaltender Darcy Kuemper. Goaltender Ryan Miller stopped 38 shots for Vancouver.
Brandon Sutter and Ben Hutton both had a goal and an assist for Vancouver. Loui Eriksson and Bo Horvat also scored for the Canucks (10-11-2).
Jason Pominville had two goals for Minnesota. Erik Haula and Jason Zucker also scored for the Wild (11-8-3).
Kuemper, making his second start in eight games for Minnesota, stopped 30 shots.
Vancouver is 6-3-1 in their last 10 games. The Canucks had not won back-to-back games since opening the season with four consecutive wins.
A wild third period saw the teams score three times in 3:20. Eriksson and Horvat scored 59 seconds apart to give Vancouver a 4-2 lead.
Eriksson's goal came when Michael Chaput took a shot that Kuemper stopped. Eriksson, standing at the side of the net, tapped home the rebound at 1:09.
Horvat made it 4-2 at 2:08 when he deflected Luca Sbisa's point shot past Kuemper.
Zucker cut Vancouver's lead to 4-3 when he blocked a Erik Gudbranson shot and scored on a breakaway at 3:20.
Haula tied the game at 14:11 when he deflected a point shot from Ryan Suter past Miller.
Vancouver scored power-play goals 1:59 apart in the second period to erase a 2-0 deficit.
Pominville gave the Wild a two-goal lead at 3:24. He took a pass from Haula and stepped into a shot from just above the faceoff circle that sailed under Miller's blocker.
The Canucks' comeback started at 9:23 after Minnesota's Matt Dumba was sent off for interference. Stecher took a slap shot from the blue line that Sutter deflected between the legs of a screened Kuemper.
Hutton tied the game at 11:22 when Jonas Brodin was called off for hooking.
Daniel Sedin, positioned in front of the net, took a pass from Henrik Sedin and tried to jam the puck past Kuemper. During the ensuing scramble, the puck squirted free and Hutton poked it into the goal.
It was the first time Vancouver scored two power-play goals in a game since an Oct. 22 loss to Los Angeles.
The Wild led 1-0 after a first period in which they outshot Vancouver 14-7.
The scoring play started when Nino Niederreiter took a pass off the boards and skated around Sbisa. Niederreiter took a shot that Miller stopped but Pominville put in the rebound at 5:07.
The Canucks thought they had tied the game with 5:18 left in the period. Henrik Sedin jammed home the rebound of a Hutton shot, but the goal was disallowed on a challenge after officials decided Sutter had interfered with Kuemper.
NOTES: LW Sven Baertschi returned to the Canuck lineup after missing two games with a foot injury. ... D Alex Edler (broken finger) is out up to six weeks. ... With D Chris Tanev (lower body) also out of the lineup, Vancouver will dress the youngest defensive corps in the league with four players 24 years old or younger. ... D Alex Biega, recalled from a conditioning assignment with the AHL Utica Comets, was a healthy scratch along with C Joseph Labate. ... The Canucks continue a three-game homestand Thursday against Anaheim. ... D Gustav Olofsson, recalled from Iowa of the AHL on Sunday, made his season debut with the Wild. ... D Nate Prosser was a healthy scratch. ... Minnesota assistant coach Darby Hendrickson played 27 games with the Canucks in 1998-99. ... D Jared Spurgeon celebrated his 27th birthday. ... Wild C Mikael Granlund is the older brother of Vancouver C Markus Granlund. ... Minnesota plays its second of four games in Canada on Friday in Calgary.