For the second time this month, Brock Boeser recorded a multi-goal game against the Pittsburgh Penguins and helped lead the Canucks to a 5-2 win.

Boeser recorded a hat trick back on November 4th and finished with five goals in two games versus Pittsburgh.  Boeser capped a two-night tear through the Keystone state as he had two goals the night before in Philadelphia as well.

A team winning both ends of a back to back scenario and not using it as an excuse???  Who knew?

Boeser would get to work quickly as he took a pass from Sven Baertschi and finished it high over Matt Murray’s glove just 3:52 into the game.

But, the Pens would respond quickly and on the Powerplay as Jake Guentzel would pick up a pass from Phil Kessel as Kessel and Kris Letang executed a perfect delayed breakout.

Guentzel’s shot was stopped by Anders Nilsson, but Guentzel quickly found his own rebound and put it home at 6:28 to tie the game at one.

So much like the earlier season game, Guentzel and Boeser dueled early in the goal scoring department.

Vancouver would get a lucky break on their next goal two minutes later.  Phil Kessel would backskate in his own zone and accidentally lose the puck thanks to a Sidney Crosby broken stick to the right of Matt Murray.  Thomas Vanek would pounce on it and be stopped by Murray, but Loui Eriksson would put the rebound off of Murray’s stick and the puck would float into the net to give the Canucks back the lead.

The Pens would get another powerplay before the end of the first, but would give up two huge chances against as Murray had to bail out his powerplay.

Pittsburgh would show a recent glaring weakness to highlight the middle frame as the Pens penalty kill would go a long way to put the game out of reach.

With Ian Cole in the box for a slash, former Penguin Derrick Pouliot would take a shot from the far point with time winding down on the minor.  The shot appeared to be going at least five feet wide (which is five feet closer than Pouliot ever achieved in his time here).  But instead of wiping out a vendor in the crowd, the shot would hit a leg in front and go in for a two goal lead.

The second consecutive goal on the powerplay would again come off of the stick of Boeser as he hammered an Ovechkin or Stamkos-like one-timer from the top of the far circle past Murray, who never had a chance.

So for the third time in the past handful of games, Pittsburgh would give up two powerplay goals in a game as their struggles on the p.k. would continue.  This also further highlights the losses to the roster over the off-season that helped do the job the last few years.

Guentzel would get his second powerplay goal of the game just 1:24 into the third, cutting the lead in half.  Phil Kessel’s pass would deflect off of Guentzel’s skate in the mid slot and past Nilsson to show life.  Phil the Thrill would finish with two assists to continue leading the club in points.

Pittsburgh would get another’s chance right away with a man advantage but couldn’t take advantage.  Eventually, Brandon Sutter would cap off the scoring with an empty netter with 1:20 to go.

Nilsson finished the game with 43 saves on 45 shots as the game really followed the script of the November 4th one in Vancouver.

Pittsburgh lost its second consecutive home game while the Canucks won their league-leading eighth road game on the year.

Both teams tallied two powerplay goals, the Canucks in three tries, Pittsburgh with five.

Matt Murray finished with 32 saves.

Evgeni Malkin sat out with an upper-body injury that was described as day-to-day.  Mike Sullivan said that Malkin would be re-evaluated on Thursday to determine his status going forward.

Pittsburgh travels to Boston for a 1pm game on Friday before coming back home to face white-hot Tampa Bay on Saturday evening.

Happy Thanksgiving to everyone out there, enjoy your day an drew thanks for reading!

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