The Vancouver Canucks refused to let their playoff hopes die.
Kiefer Sherwood scored the winner at 3:44 of overtime, capping a furious comeback as the Canucks beat the host Dallas Stars 6-5 in NHL action Tuesday at American Airlines Center.
Pius Suter (2), Jake DeBrusk, Victor Mancini and Aatu R盲ty also scored for Vancouver (36-29-13). Mikko Rantanen, Mason Marchment, Matt Duchene, Mavrik Bourque and Mikael Granlund scored for the Stars (50-22-6). Thatcher Demko made 23 saves to pick up the goaltending win, while Casey DeSmith took the loss, stopping 26 of 32 shots.
Want to see the overtime winner? SHERWOOD.
乌鸦传媒� Vancouver Canucks (@Canucks)
A regulation loss would have eliminated the Canucks from the playoffs. They are six points back (with four games to play) of the Minnesota Wild, who hold the final Western Conference wildcard slot.
Rantanen opened the scoring on the power play 13:48 into the first period, ripping a shot from the right circle past Demko. Rantanen has 32 points in 21 career games versus the Canucks.
Marchment, also on the power play, converted a feed from Jamie Benn to make it 2-0 at 18:01.
With Vancouver a man short again, Duchene乌鸦传媒檚 30th of the year at 7:28 of the second made it 3-0 Dallas. Duchene slotted home a nice cross-crease pass from Benn.
DeBrusk got Vancouver on the board 17 seconds into the third, banking a shot off DeSmith for his 25th of the year.
Mancini, with his first as a Canuck, lifted a long power-play shot that found its way through traffic and past DeSmith to pulled Vancouver within one at 3-2.
Bourque made it 4-2 at 17:15 and Granlund seemingly put things out of reach with an empty-net goal 24 seconds later.
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But the Canucks staged a furious last-minute comeback to keep their season alive, scoring three times in the last minute.
R盲ty scored his seventh of the year, and fifth in seven games, at 19:00 to make it 5-3, with Suter adding a late pair at 19:30 and 19:54 to pull Vancouver even at 5-5.
Suter has 24 goals on the season, with 13 of them coming in the third period.
In overtime, after the Canucks failed to convert on a power-play opportunity, Sherwood completed the comeback win with his 18th goal of the year, taking a nice pass from Conor Garland and firing a shot from the slot past DeSmith.
Vancouver visits the Colorado Avalanche Thursday (6 p.m.).
NOTES: Garland had three assists and Quinn Hughes and Filip Hronek had two helpers apiece for Vancouver乌鸦传媒� Hughes possessed the puck for five minutes and seven seconds in the game, and was on the ice for the entire overtime乌鸦传媒� Granlund had three points for Dallas乌鸦传媒� Both teams had four power-play chances, with the Stars converting on three and the Canucks going 2-for-4.
