NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) 鈥 Phillip Di Giuseppe and Nils Hoglander scored goals early in the second period to lead the Vancouver Canucks to a 3-2 victory over the Nashville Predators on Tuesday night.
Ilya Mikheyev also scored, and Thatcher Demko made 15 saves for Vancouver, winners of two straight. The Canucks wrapped up a five-game road trip with three wins and two losses.
鈥淩eally impressive effort I thought,鈥 Demko said. 鈥淚鈥檓 really proud of the guys.鈥
Colton Sissons and Kiefer Sherwood scored and Juuse Saros made 21 saves for Nashville, which had its two-game winning streak snapped.
鈥淐redit to them, I thought they trapped extremely hard,鈥 Predators coach Andrew Brunette said. 鈥淭hey did to us what we would have liked to do them. They deserved to win. We didn鈥檛 deserve to be in that game.鈥
Mikheyev scored the game鈥檚 first goal at 4:29 of the opening period with a wrist shot from the high slot that deflected off the stick of Predators' defenceman Roman Josi and over Saros鈥 left shoulder.
Sissons answered for Nashville with a wrist shot from the right circle underneath the crossbar on the far side at 15:38 of the first.
Vancouver came out strong in the second period with Di Giuseppe scoring 22 seconds in and Hoglander following at 3:11.
鈥淚t鈥檚 good to get them in a good sequence and put them on their heels for a bit,鈥 Di Giuseppe said. 鈥淏ut then I think they pushed pretty hard and got some o-zone time against us.鈥
Sherwood drew Nashville to within a goal at 9:18 of the second, converting on a one-timer from the top of the left circle off of a cross-ice feed from Tommy Novak on a 3-on-2 Nashville rush.
鈥淲e鈥檝e got to figure out our starts because we鈥檙e clawing our way back,鈥 Sherwood said.
After posting just one assist in Nashville鈥檚 first five games of the season, Sherwood has two goals and an assist in the last two games.
PAUCITY OF PENALTIES
There was just one penalty called through 2 1/2 periods in the game. After a first period Vancouver too many men on the ice call, the Predators had two opportunities on the power play late in the third.
Nashville did not score on any of their three power plays. The Predators went 5-for-12 with the man advantage over their previous three games.
鈥淥ur penalty kill was really good,鈥 Vancouver coach Rick Tocchet said. 鈥淵ou give back-to-back penalties with four or five minutes left, and you are overusing guys.鈥
Nashville was whistled for just one penalty in the game, and Vancouver failed to score on that power play. By largely staying out of the penalty box, the Predators kept Vancouver鈥檚 hot power play off the ice. The Canucks entered Tuesday with the NHL鈥檚 third-ranked power play, connecting at 37.5 per cent.
STRONG RETURN
Mikheyev has posted a goal and an assist since entering the lineup in Vancouver鈥檚 game Saturday at Florida. The winger sustained an ACL injury last September and played 46 games, posting 13 goals and 15 assists, last season before having surgery in February.
UP NEXT
Canucks: Host St. Louis Friday.
Predators: Host Toronto on Saturday.
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