EDMONTON, Alberta (AP) – Brock Boeser and Elias Petterson each had a power-play goal and an assist, Jacob Markstrom made 27 saves for his first postseason shutout, and the Vancouver Canucks beat the Minnesota Wild 3-0 to take a 2-1 lead Thursday in their best-of-five qualifier series.
Antoine Roussel and Elias Pettersson also scored and Quinn Hughes had three assists for the Canucks, who outlasted the Wild in another penalty-filled, extra-testy matchup and moved within one game of advancing to the first round in their first appearance in the playoffs since 2015.
The teams played 33:49 without scoring, until Boeser got Vancouver going late in the second period with a falling-down backhander off the ricochet from Pettersson’s shot.
“Just picking up trash,” Boeser said, laughing.
Boeser, a native of Minnesota who grew up about 20 miles from the Wild’s arena, has three points in three games. He scored on the sixth anniversary of his friend Ty Alyea’s death in a car accident, marking the moment by pointing upward after his goal.
