Vancouver Canucks' Andrei Kuzmenko (96) scores against San Jose Sharks goalie James Reimer (47) during the first period of an NHL hockey game in Vancouver, B.C., Thursday, March 23, 2023. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Darryl Dyck
VANCOUVER – Andrei Kuzmenko scored, notched an assist and set a record Thursday as his Vancouver Canucks toppled the San Jose Sharks 7-2.
The Russian winger scored his 35th of the season, setting a new high for goals by a first-year Canucks player. He surpassed the 34 put up by Pavel Bure in 1991-92.
J.T. Miller, Dakota Joshua, Conor Garland and Phillip Di Giuseppe also contributed a goal and a helper each for Vancouver (32-34-5), while Vasily Podkolzin and Sheldon Dries also found the back of the net. Tyler Myers recorded a pair of assists.
Tomas Hertl and Andrew Agozzino replied for the struggling Sharks (19-38-15).
Canucks goalie Thatcher Demko stopped 17-of-19 shots and James Reimer made 14 saves for the visitors.
The result stretched San Jose’s winless skid to eight games (0-5-3). The Sharks have not won in regulation since beating the Seattle Kraken 4-0 on Feb. 20.
Dries sealed the score at 7-2 with 13.5 seconds left on the clock, sending a back-hand shot soaring past Reimer with Garland in the box after Vancouver was called for too many men.
A flurry of goals saw the Canucks take a 6-2 lead midway through the period.
Di Giuseppe buried his fifth of the season 11:28 into the period, tipping in Quinn Hughes’s rocket from the point.
Hughes now has 68 points (five goals, 63 assists) on the year, tying the record he set last season for points by a Canucks defenceman.
Podkolzin put Vancouver up 5-2 a minute and 18 seconds earlier, ripping a blistering shot past Reimer from above the faceoff circle.
San Jose cut its deficit to two goals 9:55 into the third when Agozzino sprinted down the ice and sent a wrister over Demko’s glove from the hash marks.
Garland boosted Vancouver’s cushion to three goals 12:34 into the second.
Defenceman Tyler Myers hit the winger in the chest with a long pass and the puck dropped to the ice, where Garland batted it in to make it 4-1.
The Canucks took a 3-1 lead into the first intermission after Joshua tucked a buzzer beater around an outstretched Reimer with 0.4 seconds left on the clock.
San Jose got on the board 9:34 into the game when Hertl ripped a shot past Demko from the hash marks for his 20th goal of the season.
A minute and 17 seconds earlier, Vancouver jumped out to a 2-0 lead when Elias Pettersson dished a pass to Kuzmenko in front of the net. The Russian deftly moved the puck from his forehand to his backhand, then shovelled a shot in past Reimer.
Pettersson earned an assist on the play, extending his point streak to a career-high 10 games with five goals and nine helpers across the stretch.
Vancouver opened the scoring 6:15 into the first after Miller picked off Hertl’s pass at the Sharks’ blue line. The Canucks centre skated in alone and snapped a shot past Reimer for his 29th goal of the campaign.
SHARKS SWEPT
The Canucks won their ninth straight game against the Sharks, including all four matchups between the two sides this season.
HELLO HRONEK
Defenceman Filip Hronek played his first game in a Canucks jersey. Vancouver acquired the 25-year-old from the Detroit Red Wings on March 1 for first and second-round picks in this year’s draft, but an upper-body injury kept Hronek out of the lineup until Thursday.
D-MAN DOWN
Vancouver’s Christian Wolanin left the game with a lower-body injury midway through the first period and did not return.
The 28-year-old blue liner signed a two-year, two-way extension with the Canucks earlier on Thursday.
Wolanin has three assists over 15 games since being recalled to Vancouver from the American Hockey League’s Abbotsford Canucks, where he put up 55 points (six goals, 49 assists) in 49 games.
UP NEXT
Canucks: Kick off a three-game road swing against the Dallas Stars on Saturday.
Sharks: Battle the Flames in Calgary on Saturday.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published March 23, 2023.
