The Ottawa Senators rallied from a two-goal deficit to beat the Vancouver Canucks 4-2 in the NHL’s Heritage Classic.
The last of the league’s six outdoor games this season didn’t have quite the winter wonderland feel of the others since the retractable roof of the BC Place stadium — home of the Canadian Football League’s BC Lions — was closed because of rain.
For the Senators, however, it was a key win, moving them within three points of the Detroit Red Wings for the final wild-card berth in the Eastern Conference playoffs with 21 regular-season games remaining.
Clarke MacArthur had a goal and an assist for the Senators on Sunday.
Erik Karlsson, Cody Ceci and Colin Greening also scored and Craig Anderson stopped 29-of-31 shots in the victory.
Jason Garrison and Zack Kassian scored for the Canucks, who have dropped two straight and also saw forward Daniel Sedin exit early in the second period.
Sedin was checked awkwardly into the boards by Ottawa defenseman Marc Methot and was holding his left leg before walking carefully to the locker room.
The Canucks scored less than five minutes into the game when Garrison’s slap shot got past Anderson.
Kassian made it 2-0 when he carried the puck to the bottom of the right circle and fired a wrister past Anderson.
Ottawa responded with two goals later in the first period. Eric Gryba’s initial shot deflected off a skate and went to Erik Condra in the slot. MacArthur deflected Condra’s shot past Canucks goalie Eddie Lack at the 15:15 mark.
Karlsson beat Lack for a power-play goal less than two minutes later.
Ceci scored the go-ahead goal off a pass from Jason Spezza in the second period, and Greening added an empty-net goal in the third.