Gotta See It: Canucks’ own-goals yield hat trick

The Canucks, who have found themselves struggling to score of late, is more than happy to take those lucky bounces.

Did he earn it, or was he simply the recipient of good fortune?

Phoenix Coyotes red-hot forward Antoine Vermette registered his second hat trick of the season Sunday night in Vancouver and is now on a four-game point streak.

You could say Vermette scored three different ways: even strength, shorthanded and on the power play. Or you could say he scored two ways: by letting the Canucks put the puck in their own goal (twice) and actually shooting the puck in the general direction of Roberto Luongo’s net (once).

Sunday’s 5-4 Canucks overtime saw two of Team Canada’s goalies surrender a combined nine goals, and Vermette — now with a shot to hit 30 goals for the first time in his career — was the beneficiary of the two ugliest.

Watch as Luongo knocks the puck — destined to drift wide — in with his stick in the first period:

Then Ryan Kesler accidentally shoots one past Luongo in the second frame:

“I’ve been scored on a lot more weird times this season,” Luongo told reporters. “We got the win. All that matters.”

Yes, on the evening Daft Punk and Stevie Wonder collaborated at the Grammys, Vermette got lucky.

But don’t take anything away from the centreman. He played a heck of a game, going 14-for-20 in the face-off dot and shooting 60% from the floor.

“We’ve been talking about bounces lately,” Vermette said. “Hopefully it’s a sign things are going to turn around.”

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