Ottawa @ Vancouver preview

Last Meeting ( Jan 2, 2019 ) Vancouver 4, Ottawa 3

The Vancouver Canucks remain a long shot to reach the postseason as they kick off a season-high seven-game homestand Wednesday against the Ottawa Senators. Vancouver is six points behind Arizona for the final wild-card spot in the Western Conference after back-to-back victories at playoff hopefuls Dallas and Chicago with the Canucks' Bo Horvat telling reporters: "Getting these wins have been really good for our team."

Vancouver's Elias Pettersson, the heavy favorite to win the Calder Trophy, set a club record for points by a rookie with 61 after recording an assist in Monday's 3-2 overtime victory over the Blackhawks, but kept the personal accomplishment in perspective. "It's a lot to take in," Pettersson told reporters. "It means a lot to me. I'm very proud of it, but I'm just focusing on the next game. Of course, I'm very happy with the record." League-worst Ottawa is coming off a 6-2 victory over Toronto on Saturday and will try to match a season high with its third straight win as it begins a three-game trek through Western Canada. The Canucks won the first of two meetings this season 4-3 on Jan. 2 with Pettersson completing his only career hat trick at 1:38 of overtime.

TV: 10 p.m. ET, TSN5, RDS (Ottawa), Sportsnet Pacific (Vancouver)

ABOUT THE SENATORS (25-41-6): Brady Tkachuk isn't having as successful a rookie season as Pettersson, but the fourth overall pick in the 2018 draft has a team-high 16 goals and 36 points. Chris Tierney (nine goals, 45 points) has scored in two of his last three games and along with Zack Smith (eight, 27), who had three assists versus the Maple Leafs on Saturday, is one goal shy of 100. Magnus Paajarvi scored twice Saturday, giving him four goals in three contests against Toronto this season and five in 67 games against everyone else.

ABOUT THE CANUCKS (31-32-10): Pettersson, who eclipsed the 60 points recorded by Ivan Hlinka in 1981-82 and matched by Pavel Bure (1991-92), has scored just one of his club-most 27 goals in the last 14 games. Horvat (second on the team with 54 points) scored his 25th goal 16 seconds into overtime Monday and has two goals along with six points in his last five contests after going pointless in his previous five. Defenseman Alex Edler, who recorded three assists in the first meeting with Ottawa, had a goal and an assist - like Horvat - versus Chicago and has three of his eight goals this season in the last seven games.

OVERTIME

1. Ottawa RW Max Veronneau, who is pursuing a mechanical engineering degree at Princeton, recorded an assist Saturday for his first NHL point in his second game since being signed as an NCAA free agent March 12.

2. Vancouver needs two points to exceed last season's total and is on course to record its best campaign since the 2014-15 playoff team compiled 101.

3. The Senators haven't scored a power-play goal in their last six games (0-for-13) and are 1-for-20 in the past nine contests.

PREDICTION: Canucks 3, Senators 2