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Canucks stay perfect

Jacob Markstrom made 26 saves and Daniel Sedin scored the winner in the third period Thursday as the Vancouver Canucks downed the Buffalo Sabres 2-1.

Jannik Hansen had the other goal for Vancouver (4-0-0), which won its fourth straight game to open the season, tying a franchise mark set in 1992-93. Brandon Sutter had two assists.

With the victory, the Canucks are the NHL's only remaining undefeated team after Colorado blanked Tampa Bay 4-0 earlier Thursday.

Nicholas Baptiste scored his first NHL goal for Buffalo (1-2-1). Robin Lehner stopped 18 shots.

The Canucks led 1-0 through two periods and stretched that lead to two at 9:10 of the third when their power play — 0 for 12 up to that point — finally connected. Lehner robbed Sutter at the side of the net, but Loui Eriksson fed a nice pass to Sedin, who buried his second.

After Buffalo's Ryan O'Reilly had a great chance that Alexander Edler swept off the goal line, Baptiste scored on a strange play. Baptiste threw the puck in front and it struck Vancouver's Jake Skille as he battled with Nicolas Deslauriers. The puck caromed towards Markstrom's net, off Edler's stick and in at 11:23. Deslauriers was originally given credit for the goal before it was changed.

The Sabres had a couple of looks from there, but a late too many men on the ice penalty took the wind out of their sails, and they were unable to find the range with Lehner out of the Buffalo goal for an extra attacker.

Markstrom, now 3-0-0 on the year, made his second straight start in place of Ryan Miller, who served as the backup after sitting out last game with general tightness.

Following shootout and overtime victories in their first two games, the Canucks beat St. Louis 2-1 in OT on Tuesday to become the first team in league history to win its first three outings of a season while never holding a regulation lead in any of those contests.

Vancouver was just 3-30-1 when trailing after 40 minutes last season, and each victory in 2016-17 prior to Thursday came after the club trailed through two periods, but the Canucks didn't require a comeback on this night after Hansen scored the 100th goal of his career at 11:10 of the second off the rush.

Buffalo turned the puck over in the neutral zone, and Sutter wheeled the other way with a hard-charging Hansen. Lehner could only get a piece of Sutter's shot, which dropped into the crease for Hansen to poke home for the Canucks' first lead in 218 minutes 22 seconds of action this season.

The Sabres were once again without injured forwards Jack Eichel (ankle) and Evander Kane (ribs) as they wrapped up a three-game road trip through western Canada that also included a 6-2 win over Edmonton and a 4-3 overtime loss in Calgary. They had a number of opportunities to draw level against Vancouver.

Matt Moulson had two shots in tight that Markstrom turned aside later in the period before the Canucks goalie also stoned Kyle Okposo on successive chances a few minutes later.

Markstrom then stood tall again on a Buffalo power play with Sam Reinhart staring him down from the right face-off dot.

The Sabres, meanwhile, surrendered their first man advantage goal against in 11 chances up that point.



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