Canucks Win 4th Straight, Top Vegas 5-4 On Hughes OT Winner

Quinn Hughes #43 of the Vancouver Canucks scores OT winning goal on Robin Lehner #90 of Vegas Golden Knights. (Photo by Jeff Vinnick/NHLI via Getty Images)

by Kevin Woodley / NHL.com Independent Correspondent

VANCOUVER — The Vegas Golden Knights lost ground in the Western Conference wild card race with a 5-4 overtime loss to the Vancouver Canucks at Rogers Arena on Tuesday.

Quinn Hughes scored on a rebound 51 seconds into overtime after Shea Theodore tied it 4-4 with 42 seconds left in the third period on a one-timer from the top of the face-off circle.

Theodore scored two goals, Alec Martinez had a goal and an assist, and Robin Lehner made 22 saves for the Golden Knights (40-29-5), whose only two losses in the past eight games are both to the Canucks.

Vegas trails the Dallas Stars, who defeated the Tampa Bay Lightning 1-0 on Tuesday, by three points for the second wild card.

Forward Mark Stone returned after missing 26 games with a back injury for Vegas, which is three points behind Dallas in the wild card race and three points behind the Los Angeles Kings for third in the Pacific Division.

Elias Pettersson had a goal and two assists, and Thatcher Demko made 41 saves for the Canucks (36-28-10), who have won four in a row and are six back of Dallas.

Vancouver Canucks goaltender Thatcher Demko (35). (Photo by Derek Cain/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)

Bo Horvat put the Canucks ahead 1-0 at 1:04 of the first period with a power-play one-timer after a nice one-touch pass by Alex Chiasson on the goal line.

Martinez scored his first goal of the season at 16:59 to tie it 1-1 when Mattias Janmark‘s point shot deflected in off him cutting to the net.

Vasily Podkolzin put the Canucks ahead 2-1 on a power play 1:27 into the second period, redirecting a slap pass from Pettersson at the top of the crease.

Pettersson made it 3-1 at 3:16 with a wrist shot off the rush that bounced off the glove of Lehner and landed between his legs, where it was knocked just over the goal line by the skate of Vegas defenseman Zach Whitecloud.

Michael Amadio scored on a deflection to make it 3-2 at 4:26, but Vancouver went up 4-2 at 13:03 on a 2-on-1 that started with Pettersson stealing a puck in his own end and finished with a no-look pass to Brad Richardson for a tap-in.

Theodore made it 4-3 at 5:27 of the third period with a far-side wrist from the right face-off dot.