Vancouver Canucks forward Elias Pettersson left the bench in the third period and did not return against the San Jose Sharks.
Canucks Head Coach Rick Tocchet gave an update on his star centreman after the game, saying Pettersson got “banged up” in the second period, but doesn’t believe the injury will be too bad considering the holiday break coming up, per the Athletic’s Harman Dayal.
While the Canucks were able to hold down the fort after Pettersson left as they were able to walk away with a 4-3 victory, it was unfortunate for the player who finally got back on the scoresheet. The 6’2″ centreman scored the Canucks third and fourth goal in the span of 34 seconds.
His first goal came 26 seconds after Kiefer Sherwood gave the Canucks a 2-1 lead.
Pettersson carried the puck into the offensive zone before dishing it off to Jake DeBrusk. DeBrusk then rips a shot on net with a big rebound off of Yaroslav Askarov’s pad that goes straight to Pettersson, who makes no mistakes and fires it into the top right corner. Sharks’ head coach Ryan Warsofsky thought Conor Garland interfered with his netminder and challenged the play. The call on the ice stood, and the Canucks were sent to the power play.
On the ensuing power play, the Canucks drew another penalty, sending them to a 5-on-3. With the extra ice out there, Pettersson was given the time and space to find the top left corner and give the Canucks a three-goal lead. This was Pettersson’s first multi-goal game since March 19th of last season.
Here was Pettersson’s one shift of the third period and last of the game.
The former first-round pick was snake-bitten over his previous six games, being held pointless and had a minus-five rating in that span. In fact, his last 5-on-5 goal was over a month and a half ago, on November 9th, against the Edmonton Oilers.
Pettersson will have the Christmas break to recover before the club’s matinee match against the Seattle Kraken on Saturday.
