Horvat after unorthodox power-play winner: 'Christmas came early'

Bo Horvat will take it.

The Vancouver Canucks forward's ninth goal of the season stood up as the game-winning marker Friday against the Tampa Bay Lightning, and it was about us unorthodox as a power-play goal gets.

Whatdya mean that's not how they drew it up? pic.twitter.com/99rAb8DT3U

- NHL (@NHL) December 17, 2016

Andrei Vasilevskiy is giving out rebounds for Christmas, apparently - and Horvat's grateful.

"We got some bounces, which was nice," Horvat said after the game. "My goal was just how we drew it up ... no, Christmas came early with that bounce."

The loss was Tampa Bay's fifth in seven games in December - and second to the Canucks in slightly over a week.

Vancouver ended a three-game skid with the win.

"This was a statement game," said defenseman Luca Sbisa, who scored his first of the season Friday. "We weren't happy with what went down in Carolina and we needed to shift things."

Copyright (C) 2016 Score Media Ventures Inc. All rights reserved. Certain content reproduced under license.