Logan Stankoven and Nikolaj Ehlers kept finding the net, and the Carolina Hurricanes had more than enough firepower to roll past the Vancouver Canucks 6-3 on Tuesday night.
Stankoven and Ehlers each finished with two goals and an assist as Carolina improved to 8-2-1. Nicolas Deslauriers added two goals of his own, while Jackson Blake piled up three assists in a game the Hurricanes controlled once they started opening space.
For Vancouver, the night brought more frustration than relief. The Canucks fell to 2-8-1, their losing streak reaching eight games at 0-7-2. Linus Karlsson, Jonathan Lekkerimaki and Max Sasson scored, but the home side could never string together enough stops to protect its chances.
Leevi Merilainen gave Vancouver one of its few bright spots with 26 saves, including a denial of Sebastian Aho on a second-period penalty shot after Elias Pettersson was penalized for throwing his stick while trying to break up the play.
Stankoven got the building going early, and a good chunk of the lower bowl made sure he heard it. The Kamloops, B.C. native scored at 4:44 of the first period after Blake slipped him a backhand pass, and Stankoven blasted it home for his fifth of the season.
Vancouver answered midway through the period when Karlsson beat Pyotr Kochetkov high for his third goal of the year. That tie lasted less than two minutes. Ehlers, left alone behind the Canucks net after Tom Willander lost track of him, buried Blake’s pass into an open side to put Carolina back in front.
The first period wasn’t done yet. With two seconds left, Lekkerimaki lifted a shot over Kochetkov to make it 2-2 heading into intermission.
Carolina grabbed the next edge early in the second. After Jesperi Kotkaniemi picked off a Vancouver clearing attempt along the boards, he fed Deslauriers, who sent the puck under the crossbar to make it 3-2. It was the first goal for the veteran forward since April 2025.
The Canucks responded again. A collision in the slot involving Bradly Nadeau and Arshdeep Bains sent Bains crashing into Kochetkov, and Sasson, just out of the penalty box, finished the moment with a goal to tie it at 3-3.
The Hurricanes finally separated themselves in the third. At 4:07, Nadeau chipped a backhand pass from the end boards to Deslauriers, who put the puck in off Merilainen for his second of the night and a 4-3 Carolina lead. Ehlers then scored his second at 10:21, and Stankoven added an empty-netter with just over two minutes left.
Carolina also had to deal with a scare when Ehlers was sent sprawling along the boards in the second period and appeared to be favoring his right leg. He stayed on the bench for several minutes while talking with a trainer before returning.
The Canucks entered the night with the league’s worst penalty kill at 58.1 per cent, and they did manage to kill off three second-period penalties plus a double minor in the third.
One of the night’s biggest saves came from Kochetkov, who robbed Vancouver of a potential go-ahead goal late in the second when he caught Drew O’Connor’s shot out of the air.
The result also extended Carolina’s run against Vancouver to six straight wins dating back to October 2024. The Hurricanes had already beaten the Canucks 7-2 on Oct. 8.
Vancouver is back home Thursday against the Detroit Red Wings, while Carolina heads to Edmonton to face the Oilers on Thursday.
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