Canucks defeat Ducks 8-5 thanks to Kuzmenko’s first hat trick.

British Columbia’s VANCOUVER (AP) — The Vancouver Canucks defeated the Anaheim Ducks 8-5 on Thursday night thanks to three goals and an assist from Andrei Kuzmenko, who also recorded his first NHL hat trick.

Bo Horvat scored twice and assisted on another goal, Elias Pettersson had a goal and four assists, J.T. Miller and Dakota Joshua also scored for the Canucks. Spencer Martin made 26 saves, while Quinn Hughes had two assists.

Trevor Zegras, Ryan Strome, Max Comtois, and Max Jones all scored for San Jose, while Troy Terry contributed a goal and two assists. 39 saves were made by John Gibson.

In the third period, the Canucks had a 3-2 lead until the teams scored eight goals in a span of 14 1/2 minutes.

At 5:30, Joshua pushed the puck through traffic and into the Ducks’ goal to give the Canucks a two-goal advantage.

Anaheim claimed that Vancouver’s Jack Studnicka spun Gibson out of position when Anaheim made a goalie interference claim. However, after a video review, officials decided that Studnicka was playing on the lost puck and the goal was valid.

At 5:54, Kuzmenko poked a feed from Pettersson and past Gibson to give Vancouver a fast second goal on the subsequent penalty play for the delay of game to make it 5-2.

At 7:51, Comtois scored on a breakaway to get the Canucks within two, and with 6:25 remaining, Zegras scored on a power play when his long shot went by Martin to make it 5-4.

Kuzmenko scored twice in as many minutes to aid the Canucks’ lead-up. With 3:12 left, he launched a shot from the high hash lines, which was his third of the game, and the spectators threw hats onto the ice in reaction.

Within 50 seconds, Anaheim scored when a rebound rebounded off Jones in the crease and went past Martin.

The Ducks withdrew Gibson for a 6-on-4 advantage after a penalty by Vancouver, but Horvat sealed the victory with an empty-net goal with 56 seconds remaining.

Horvat tied it for Vancouver late in the first when he scored for the third game in a row after Terry had knotted it for Anaheim with a power-play goal and his team-high 15th point (five goals, 10 assists).

At 9:07 in the second, Pettersson gave the Canucks the lead by receiving a pass from Ilya Mikheyev, kicking the puck to his stick, and firing it past Gibson.

Miller extended his point run to five games by making it 3-1 four minutes later with his sixth of the year (four goals, three assists).

With 46 seconds left in the middle period, Strome brought the Ducks within one after receiving a feed from Zegras and beating Martin from the faceoff circle.

ALWAYS A CANUCK

Former defender Kevin Bieksa, who signed a one-day deal to formally retire with the Canucks, was honored before the game in Vancouver. The 41-year-old played 808 games for Vancouver and Anaheim over the course of his 13 NHL seasons, scoring 278 points (63 goals, 215 assists).

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