By Associated Press
VANCOUVER, British Columbia — Sven Baertschi scored twice, including the tiebreaking goal on a power play with under four minutes to go, and Ryan Miller made 24 saves for his 350th career victory as the Vancouver Canucks beat the Colorado Avalanche 3-2 on Monday night.
Bo Horvat also scored to help the Canuck win four straight for the first time since opening the season 4-0-0. Henrik Sedin added two assists, while Daniel Sedin picked up an assist on the winning goal for the 600th of his career.
The Canucks got back to .500 for the first time since Oct. 29 and improved to 6-2-1 over their last nine.
The 36-year-old Miller joined John Vanbiesbrouck (374) and Tom Barrasso (369) as the only U.S.-born goalies to reach 350 wins.
Mikko Rantanen and Tyson Barrie scored for Colorado, which sits last overall in the NHL. Calvin Pickard stopped 21 shots as the Avalanche lost their fourth straight and ninth in their last 10.
Down 2-1 in the third, Barrie tied things up with 8:18 left with his third of the season and first in 19 games on a shot from the point that flew into the top corner through traffic.
The Canucks got a late power play, and Baertschi buried his second of the night and 10th of the season on a rebound of Daniel Sedin's shot with 3:37 left.
The Avalanche pressed hard for the tie late, but Miller stopped Gabriel Landeskog on a great opportunity down low in the waning seconds.
The Canucks snapped a 1-1 tie with 1:45 left in the second period, moments after an Avalanche penalty expired when Baertschi took a feed from Brandon Sutter and ripped his ninth off the post and in past Pickard.
Vancouver came close to opening the scoring on another power play early in the period, but Troy Stecher hit the post before Pickard, who started a fifth consecutive game with Semyon Varlamov still sidelined with a groin problem, made consecutive saves on Baertschi and Sutter.
The Canucks finally got on the board at 4:48 when Horvat scored his team-leading 11th. Anton Rodin made a nice play in the neutral zone up to Ben Hutton, who moved in on a 2-on-1 rush before feeding Horvat. The assist for Rodin was the first of his NHL career in his second game.
Colorado tied it at 6:53 when the league's 29th-ranked power play snapped an 0-for-25 streak. Already down a man and with one defender minus a broken stick, Vancouver's Markus Granlund couldn't clear the zone, and the puck eventually found its way to Rantanen, who beat Miller upstairs through a screen for his sixth.
After Baertschi gave his team the lead late in the second, Miller made a nice pad save on Mikhail Grigorenko off a scramble 4:30 into the third period.
Sutter appeared to have made it 3-1 at 7:16, but his shot off the crossbar and the post stayed out and was waved off after video review.
Miler then made another nice stop on Nathan MacKinnon on a burst through the slot before Barrie tied it.
The teams recorded just six shots apiece in the first period, but Vancouver carried the majority of the play. The Canucks' best chance came about six minutes in when Loui Eriksson jumped on a Nikita Zadorov turnover and moved in Pickard, who made a nice pad stop.
