Boeser hat trick lifts Canucks past Lightning for 3rd straight win

Andrei Kuzmenko scored, Quinn Hughes had three assists and Thatcher Demko made 28 saves for the Canucks (19-9-1), who have won three in a row.

Brayden Point scored, and Andrei Vasilevskiy made 18 saves for the Lightning (13-12-5), who were without defenseman Victor Hedman for the first time this season because of an upper-body injury sustained in a 4-3 overtime win at the Seattle Kraken on Saturday.

“We had some looks and we had we had enough scoring chances to get more than one goal, but we didn’t,” Tampa Bay coach Jon Cooper said. “It’s tough in this league at times. They kind of shut it down, the goalie was dialed in and we kept pushing.”

Point opened the scoring 1:25 into the first period, tapping the puck into an open net at the back post off a pass by Mikhail Sergachev for a 1-0 lead.

“He made some great saves,” Point said. “I thought we did have some good looks. You get one there and you get a little life, but they beat us on the special teams tonight and it’s a big part of the game.”

Kuzmenko tied it 1-1 on the power play at 6:08, one-timing Hughes’ pass under the blocker of Vasilevskiy from the top of the left face-off circle.

“We’ve got some looks recently but haven’t scored [on the power play],” Boeser said. “We talked it out, worked on it this morning in practice and I’m really happy he got that goal.”