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SAN JOSE – The Vancouver Canucks (26-26-7) look to string consecutive wins together for the first time this month when they wrap up a three-game California road trip against the San Jose Sharks (34-17-7) at SAP Center on Saturday. The last time the Canucks won two straight was January 18th versus Buffalo and January 20th against Detroit.

After a 1-0 loss in Anaheim on Wednesday, the Canucks responded with a 4-3 shootout victory in Los Angeles on Thursday. Elias Pettersson, Brock Boeser and Adam Gaudette scored the Canucks goals, Troy Stecher logged a career-high 31:55 and Jacob Markstrom made 35 saves plus two more on three attempts in the skills competition. Defenseman Guillaume Brisebois became the third Canucks player to make his NHL debut this week.

Boeser’s goal was his 20th of the season. He has now reached the 20-goal mark in each of his first two seasons in the National Hockey League. He joins Pettersson (26) and Bo Horvat (20) as Canucks with at least 20-goals this season. Meanwhile, Gaudette drew the primary assist on Boeser’s goal, giving him his first multi-point game in the NHL.

With injuries to several key veterans, the Canucks iced a line-up in LA with nine skaters aged 23-and-younger and 13 skaters who are 25-and-under. One who is not, veteran winger Loui Eriksson, will appear in his 900th NHL game tonight.

The Canucks went one for two on the power play with Pettersson netting his 26th goal of the season to open the scoring in the first period. The rookie has scored the last two Canucks power play goals over the past seven games. The Canucks penalty kill was perfect on three Kings attempts and has now held opponents off the score sheet on the power play in 22 of the last 29 games. Since December 5th, the Canucks penalty killing is second-best in the NHL at 87.9% allowing just 10 PPG in that span.

The Canucks will go with the same 18 skaters they used on Thursday in LA. Markstrom makes his third straight start in goal. Jake Virtanen will miss a second straight game. He is still with the team in San Jose but has been placed on injured reserve with an upper body injury. Ryan Spooner, acquired this morning from Edmonton for Sam Gagner, is expected to join the Canucks when they return home after Saturday’s game.

This is the second meeting of the week between these teams. On Monday night at Rogers Arena, the Sharks feasted on rookie net minder Michael DiPietro who was thrust into the spotlight in a surprise NHL debut. San Jose scored on its first shot of the night – and three of its first five - en route to a 7-2 victory. The Sharks have defeated the Canucks twice this season including the last time Vancouver was in the Bay Area on November 23rd. That night Aaron Dell made 19 saves in a 4-0 shutout.

The Sharks have played just once since their win in Vancouver on Monday. Thursday night, Washington came to town and snapped San Jose’s six-game win streak with a 5-1 victory. Kevin Labanc opened the scoring just 2:09 into the hockey game, but after that the defending Stanley Cup champions took control. Martin Jones stopped 24 of the 28 shots he faced before the Capitals added an empty netter.

Labanc is holding the hot hand these days having scored five goals on a three-game goal-scoring streak including a hat trick in Edmonton last Saturday. Joe Thornton has assists in four straight games.

The Sharks will get a boost tonight with the return of veteran defenceman Erik Karlsson who has missed the last nine games with a lower-body injury.

Joe Pavelski leads the Sharks with 30 goals and is one five players on the team with 20 or more. Brent Burns leads the team in scoring with 11 goals and 52 assists for 63 points. He is the highest scoring defenceman this season and is tied for third overall in the league in assists.

As a team, the Sharks are second in the NHL in offence with 211 goals or an average of 3.64 per game.  They have the fifth best power play in the league at 24.0%.

The Sharks start the day tied with Calgary for the Pacific Division and Western Conference lead. Both teams trail only Tampa Bay Lightning in the overall league standings.

The Canucks and Sharks will meet one more time this season – April 2nd at Rogers Arena in the Canucks home finale. San Jose has dominated this match-up in recent years. The Sharks have won five straight against the Canucks and are 11-0-1 in the last 12 meetings. On home ice, the Sharks have won their last six games against Vancouver.

 

 POSSIBLE CANUCKS LINE-UP

Roussel-Horvat-Goldobin

Leivo-Pettersson-Boeser

Granlund-Gaudette-Motte

Eriksson-Beagle-MacEwen


Hutton-Stecher

Brisebois-Gudbranson

Pouliot-Biega


Markstrom

 

POSSIBLE SHARKS LINE-UP

Meier-Couture-Pavelski

Kane-Hertl-Donskoi

Sorensen-Thornton-Labanc

Gambrell-Goodrow-M. Karlsson


Simek-Burns

Vlassic-Karlsson

Dillon-Braun


Jones