Canucks defeat Lightning for rare road win
TAMPA, Fla. -- Ryan Miller stopped 38 shots to lead the Vancouver Canucks to a 5-1 victory against the Tampa Bay Lightning on Thursday before pulling himself late in the third period.
Jayson Megna and Jack Skille each scored twice while Erik Gudbranson added a goal and an assist as Vancouver won on the road for just the fourth time this season. Miller left the game with 6:02 left in the game during a timeout and headed for the locker room for the remainder of the game, replaced by Jacob Markstrom.
Ben Bishop allowed four goals on 20 shots for Tampa Bay before being pulled in favor of Andrei Vasilevskiy after the second period. Jonathan Drouin scored for the Lightning, which has just one victory in the past seven games (1-5-1) and has scored two goals in the past three games.
Skille gave the Canucks a 1-0 lead for just the eighth time this season when he collected a Gudbranson pass at center ice, reaching behind him to corral the puck in the neutral zone, and racing ahead of Nikita Kucherov and muscling his way to the net, beating Bishop by roofing a shot at 3:50. The goal came on Vancouver's first shot of the game.
The Canucks took advantage of a fortunate break to increase the lead to two goals when Gudbranson sent a shot wide of the net, but the puck caromed off the end boards back toward the crease. As Bishop attempted to cover it with his glove, the Lightning netminder inadvertently knocked the puck in to the net at 9:03.
Vancouver caught another break to go up 3-0 when Luca Sbisa's shot was tipped by Megna and hit the skate of Tampa Bay's Jason Garrison at 6:01 of the second period. The Lightning challenged the play for offside but a quick review upheld the goal.
Miller, meanwhile, looked sharp from the beginning of the game even as the Lightning were peppering the Vancouver net. It wasn't until the 11:46 mark that Tampa Bay solved Miller when Valtteri Filppula's shot hit Miller in the mask and the rebound came to Drouin, who scored his fourth goal of the season. It was the Lightning's first goal in five periods and first even strength goal since Dec. 1 at St. Louis.
Miller kept it a 3-1 lead, denying Filppula on a shorthanded breakaway, before Megna scored on a 2-on-1 chance with 1.2 seconds left in the second period.
NOTES: Lightning LW Alex Killorn appeared in his 300th career game. ... Tampa Bay G Ben Bishop started a third consecutive game for the first time this season. ... Vancouver D Alex Biega appeared in just his second game of the season, getting the start after Philip Larsen left Tuesday's game on a stretcher following a hard hit from New Jersey's Taylor Hall. Larsen was released from the hospital on Wednesday and returned to Vancouver. ... Lightning RW Ryan Callahan missed his fifth consecutive game with a lower-body injury. ... The Canucks called up D Andrey Pedan from Utica of the American Hockey League. ... Tampa Bay scratched D Slater Koekkoek and D Nikita Nesterov. ... C Joseph Labate and Pedan were scratched for Vancouver.