VANCOUVER, British Columbia (AP) - Ryan Miller rescued the Vancouver Canucks on an off night.
Miller made 44 saves, and the Canucks beat the Calgary Flames 4-2 on Friday for their sixth straight victory.
“We’ll definitely take the win, but it’s not good enough,” said Loui Eriksson, who scored Vancouver’s second goal. “Too many shots and too many scoring chances. Millsy came up big for us again and we owe him a lot.”
Vancouver directed a season-low 13 shots on net and Calgary’s 46 shots were the most allowed by the Canucks this year
“We didn’t play the way we wanted to play,” Canucks coach Willie Desjardins said. “We can certainly play better than that, but it was good we found a way to win.”
Markus Granlund had two goals and an assist against his former club and Michael Chaput also scored for Vancouver (20-18-3), which is on its longest winning streak since December 2013.
The Canucks moved into the Western Conference’s second wild-card spot, a point up on the idle Los Angeles Kings. Calgary is a point up on Vancouver in the first wild-card position.
Michael Frolik scored twice for Calgary, and Mikael Backlund had two assists. Brian Elliott stopped nine shots in the opener of a home-and-home series that ends Saturday night in Calgary.
“Sometimes a goalie can steal the game,” said Flames coach Glen Gulutzan, who was an assistant with Vancouver the last three seasons. “We made some mistakes that gave them some pretty good chances at critical times.”
Calgary’s 46 shots, including 23 in the third period, were a season high.
“We played a good game,” said Calgary captain Mark Giordano, whose team had 88 total shot attempts to Vancouver’s 22. “We can definitely pinpoint some mistakes.”
Granlund gave the Canucks a 3-1 lead with a power-play goal with 22 seconds left in the second period, and added his ninth of the season at 3:18 of the third.
NOTES: Miller has allowed just seven goals combined during his personal five-game win streak. … Backlund has six goals and five assists in the last six games. … Calgary’s Matthew Tkachuk had an assist to extend his points streak to eight games (one goal, eight assists). … Canucks forward Alexandre Burrows sat out because of an illness.
UP NEXT
Flames: Host Vancouver on Saturday night.
Canucks: At Calgary on Saturday night.
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