COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — None of Vancouver’s three goals on Tuesday night were particularly pretty. Two bounced in off skates, and the other caromed into the net off the backside of Columbus goalie Joonas Korpisalo.
The Canucks will take them. After trailing most of the game, they scored all three in the third period to beat Columbus 3-2 and win their third straight game after losing 12 of 13.
“I felt like all our goals were greasy ones tonight,” said Vancouver winger Jake Virtanen, who scored the game-winner off Korpisalo with just under two minutes left. “None of them were nice shots or anything like that, so it was nice to have that tonight. We don’t really get those often.”
Josh Leivo and Elias Pettersson also scored, and Jacob Markstrom stopped 34 shots for Vancouver.
The Blue Jackets scored 47 seconds into the game, when Seth Jones’ shot from the high slot glanced off the Canucks’ Jay Beagle and past Markstrom’s glove.
After a scoreless second period, Leivo got a deflection off his skate 8:11 into the third to make it 1-1.
Oliver Bjorkstrand snapped a shot over Markstrom’s shoulder less than two minutes later to give the Blue Jackets the lead again.
That held until a shot by Alexander Edler from just below the blue line bounced off two of his teammates’ skates and past Korpisalo with 3:04 left. Pettersson was credited with the tally.
“One of my luckiest goals,” said Pettersson, who with an assist on Leivo’s goal has three goals and seven assists in the last four games.
Virtanen then found the back of the net for the winner.
“It’s nice when your team gets rewarded for sticking with it,” Vancouver coach Travis Green said.
Joonas Korpisalo had 22 saves for the Blue Jackets, who have lost four of their last five and dropped their last three at home as they entered a stretch of five home games in nine days.
“It was a really good game from our team, just unlucky at the end,” Columbus captain Nick Foligno said.
Blue Jackets coach John Tortorella wasn’t down either. He knows that some nights the bounces just don’t go the right way when a team is struggling.
“We had some really good chances to maybe go up by two, didn’t finish a couple times,” he said. “But that’s the way it’s going for us right now. Three really funky goals. We’ll go back to work tomorrow.”
NOTES: Columbus F Josh Anderson left the game in the second period with an upper-body injury and didn’t return. … Canucks F Sven Baertschi resumed skating Monday for the first time since suffering a concussion Oct. 24 against the Vegas Golden Knights. … Jones has four goals and four assists in the last eight games. … Artemi Panarin’s assist on Jones’ first-period goal gave him a team-leading 25 for the season. … Cam Atkinson, who also had an assist on Jones’ goal, has 13 goals and eight assists in last 14 games.
UP NEXT:
Vancouver: At Nashville on Thursday.
Columbus: Hosts Los Angeles on Thursday.
