VANCOUVER, British Columbia — Shawn Matthias scored the first hat trick of his career and Radim Vrbata extended his points streak to eight games as the Vancouver Canucks defeated the Boston Bruins 5-2 on Friday night.
Matthias has five goals in the last four games. The center scored just once in the previous 17 games.
Right winger Jannik Hansen scored into an empty net.
Right winger Zack Kassian added two assists as the Canucks won back-to-back games for the first time in nearly a month. Vancouver defeated the Chicago Blackhawks 5-4 in overtime Thursday night.
Vrbata has nine points (3-6) in the last eight games.
Center Chris Kelly and center Patrice Bergeron scored for the Bruins, who lost their third straight game.
Matthias scored his third goal at 6:05 of the third period, shoveling his own rebound past Boston goaltender Tuukka Rask.
The goal came less than a minute after Kelly had cut Vancouver’s lead to 3-2 with a hard shot from the high slot that beat Canuck goaltender Ryan Miller on the stick side.
The win was Vancouver’s third in the four meetings between the teams since Boston beat the Canucks in Game 7 of the 2011 Stanley Cup final.
The Canucks (31-20-3) dominated the second period, outshooting Boston 12-4.
Vrbata, a right winger, made it 3-1 at 9:26 on a pretty goal. Left winger Chris Higgins found Vrbata with a no-look pass from behind the net. Vrbata then beat Rask with a backhand for his 21st goal of the season.
An entertaining first period saw Matthias score goals 3:22 apart to give Vancouver a 2-0 lead with just over five minutes gone. Bergeron got the Bruins (28-20-7) to within one before the period ended.
Matthias gave the Canucks the start they wanted when he deflected a pass from Kassian over Rask’s leg at 1:41. Just a few minutes later, Matthias intercepted Bruin defenseman Dougie Hamilton’s pass from behind his own net, then patiently waited for Rask to go down before flipping the puck into the net.
Boston coach Claude Julien called a timeout and it seemed to settle the Bruins down.
Bergeron got Boston on the scoresheet when he won a battle for the puck at his own blue line then carried it into the Vancouver zone. Miller stopped the first shot but Bergeron poked home his own rebound.