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The Vancouver Canucks (29-40-9) are trying to match a season-high with their fourth consecutive victory when they host the Columbus Blue Jackets (44-29-5) in a rare matinee at Rogers Arena.

The Canucks posted a third straight win on Thursday night when they edged the Edmonton Oilers 2-1. Sam Gagner and Derrick Pouliot scored the Vancouver goals. Gagner has found the back of the net in back to back games and three of his last four after going 25 without scoring. Pouliot’s was his first goal since December 5th against Carolina. All three of his goals as a Canuck have been game winners. Jussi Jokinen, who will celebrate his 35th birthday tomorrow, had an assist on the Pouliot goal and now has two goals and three assists in his nine games as a Canuck.

Pouliot’s goal was the 20th by a Canuck defender this season. The blueline has contributed 20 goals and 93 assists through the team’s first 78 games. The group needs two more goals to match the 22 scored by the defense last season. Alex Edler with a pair in Chicago, Alex Biega against Anaheim and Pouliot versus Edmonton have all scored in recent games to help boost the goal total from the back end.

Jacob Markstrom made 35 saves to run his personal win streak to a season-best four straight games. Markstrom has held his past three opponents (Dallas, Anaheim and Edmonton) to one goal apiece. Markstrom has started three straight and seven of the team’s last eight games. His start Thursday was his 55th of the season. Since December 1st, Markstrom’s 38 starts are eighth among all NHL goalies.

Late Friday afternoon, with back-up Anders Nilsson ailing, the Canucks recalled goalie Thatcher Demko from Utica on an emergency basis. The 2014 second round draft pick is 23-12-4 with a 2.49 GAA and 92.1 save percentage in the American Hockey League this season.

2015 fifth-round selection Adam Gaudette made his NHL debut on Thursday and became the 34th skater and fourth rookie to appear in a game for the Canucks this season. He logged 10:39 of ice time and recorded a pair of shots.

As a team, the Canucks have won four of their last five games. The four wins in the past 10 days equal the number of victories the team recorded in the 22 games (4-15-3) prior to this spurt between February 3rd and March 20th. A big part of their success recently is a penalty kill that is perfect over the past six games killing off all 17 penalties the team has taken. The last time the Canucks surrendered a power play goal was March 17th at home against San Jose.

The Blue Jackets are red-hot as they arrive in Vancouver. They were 5-1 winners in Calgary on Thursday. That was their 12th win in their past 13 outings – a streak that included 10 straight victories from March 4th to March 22nd. The lone loss in that stretch was a 2-1 setback to St. Louis last Saturday.

Pierre-Luc Dubois had his first NHL hat trick to lead the way at the Saddledome. His 18 goals on the season is a new record for a Blue Jackets rookie. The win in Calgary was John Tortorella’s 128th behind the Columbus bench moving him into the franchise lead for career coaching victories.

Artemi Panarin leads the Blue Jackets in goals (26), assists (47) and points (73). Defenceman Seth Jones is second in team scoring with 15 goals and 35 assists. Jones and Zach Werenski, who has 14 goals, are both in the top-10 for goals scored by defensemen and are the only teammates to crack the top 10. They are tied with Calgary’s Dougie Hamilton (16) and Mark Giordano (13) for most goals by defensive teammates in the league this season.

Thomas Vanek has seven goals and seven assists in his 15 games since being shipped by the Canucks to Columbus at the trade deadline. Those totals include a hat trick in a 7-3 win in Edmonton on Tuesday. The Blue Jackets are 4-0 when Vanek scores and 9-0 when he picks up a point.

No goalie in the league this season has played more minutes than Sergei Bobrovsky. He leads the NHL in time on ice (3787:39) and is second in the league in both games played (63) and games started (63). Bob has started five straight and nine of the past 10 games for Columbus.

The Blue Jackets hot streak has moved them to third in the Metropolitan Division just a point back of Pittsburgh, but just one ahead of fourth place Philadelphia. They have not yet clinched a playoff spot, but are closing in on a post-season berth for a second straight season. Remarkably, they are having success with the 30th ranked PP (31st on the road) and 24th ranked PK (30th on the road).

One key to the Jackets success this season has been their ability to collect points in close games. They are 22-7-5 in one goal games and are a remarkable 14-5 in games decided beyond regulation time.

The Canucks beat the Blue Jackets 5-2 in their first meeting of the season at Nationwide Arena on January 12th. Vancouver scored four second period goals to erase an early 1-0 deficit. Columbus completes the list of 30 visiting team to make an appearance at Rogers Arena this season.

Possible Canucks lines:

Goldobin-Horvat-Jokinen

Sedin-Sedin-Gagner

Archibald-Sutter-Motte

Gaunce-Gaudette-Virtanen

Extras: Dowd & Boucher

 

Blue Jackets lines:

Panarin-Dubois-Atkinson 

Jenner-Wennberg-Vanek 

Milano-Dubinsky-Bjorkstrand 

Hannikainen-Letestu-Calvert