VANCOUVER, British Columbia -- Bo Horvat picked the right time to break out of a goal-scoring slump.

Horvat took advantage of a lucky bounce to score a third-period, power-play goal as the Vancouver Canucks snapped a three-game skid with a 4-2 win over the Tampa Bay Lightning on Friday night.

"To finally get a lucky bounce like that ... we've had so many bounces that haven't gone our way this year," said Horvat, who gave the Canucks a 3-2 lead at 7:46 of the third period.

"To get one like that, it was kind of a relief off everybody's shoulders that we are going to start getting bounces here."

Brandon Sutter, Luca Sbisa and Alex Burrows, into an empty net, also scored for Vancouver. Loui Eriksson and Markus Granlund had two assists each for the Canucks (13-16-2).

Horvat scored his ninth goal of the season on a strange play.

With the Canucks on the power play, Granlund attempted a shot into the Lightning zone that careened off Eriksson's stick at the blue line and onto the net.

The shot seemed to surprise Lightning goaltender Andrei Vasilevskiy, who made the save but gave up a big rebound. Horvat used his speed to scoop up the puck and beat Vasilevskiy with a shot over the goalie's shoulder.

"It (the puck) went off the shaft of Loui's stick and then all of a sudden I saw it go off the goaltender and pop right back to me in the slot," Horvat said. "I wanted to get there as quick as I could."

It was Horvat's first goal of the season, and just second point, in eight games.

The win was an important confidence boast for the Canucks, who are 3-5-0 in the last five games. Vancouver blew a 5-2, third-period lead in losing 8-6 to the Carolina Hurricanes on the road Tuesday.

"We played a full 60 minutes," Horvat said. "To play like we did tonight after that loss (in Carolina) gives our group a lot of confidence."

Sbisa, who scored his first goal of the season, called the win "a statement game after our last performance in Carolina.

"We got a lucky bounce on Bo's goal," he said. "We didn't stray away from our game plan, which was big.

"We've shown we can be a good team. We just have to find consistency."

Coach Willie Desjardins was happy to see a bounce go the Canucks' way. All week there was speculation that Desjardins might be fired after the loss to Carolina.

"We deserved it," he said. "It doesn't seem that we've got a lot of (bounces) this year. That was one we needed.

"I thought they played well. I always said I believe in this group."

Victor Hedman and Cory Conacher scored for Tampa Bay (15-14-2).

Lightning coach Jon Cooper said his team made too many mistakes.

"It's a self-inflicted loss," Cooper said. "A couple bad turnovers end up in our net and then a marginal call at best, but a penalty 200 feet from our net, and they just get an unreal break.

"It's tough to fault the guys and their effort."

Tampa Bay has just one win in their last five games (1-4-1).

Anton Stralman said the Lightning let the Canucks back in the game.

"We stopped doing the right things," he said. "We took the easy way out a little bit and they hurt us."

Conacher said the game shifted in the second period when Vancouver scored twice for a 2-1 lead.

"In the second period, I just don't think we were going to the net hard enough," said Conacher, who scored his first goal of the season in his third NHL game this year.

"We just didn't get pucks to the net. We didn't shoot enough, we didn't have enough traffic in front of the goalie and we kind of sat back and let them easily take it out of their zone and make plays that way."

Canucks goaltender Ryan Miller stopped 25 shots. Vasilevskiy had 21 saves.

NOTES: D Chris Tanev returned to the Canucks' lineup after missing 20 games with an ankle injury. He played an average 20:09 in the seven games before his injury. ... D Erik Gudbranson missed the game with an undisclosed injury. ... C Brendan Gaunce was a healthy scratch. ... Before the game, former D Mattias Ohlund was inducted into Vancouver's Ring of Honor. ... Vancouver's homestand continues Sunday against the Columbus Blue Jackets. ... Tampa Bay RW Nikita Kucherov (lower body) and LW Ondrej Palat, who suffered an undisclosed injury in Wednesday's win over Calgary, didn't dress. ... RW Ryan Callahan (lower body) skated with the team Friday morning but missed his eighth straight game. ... Tampa Bay recalled RW Erik Condra from Syracuse of the AHL. ... D Nikita Nesterov was a healthy scratch. ... The Lightning play 16 back-to-back games this year, their most since 2010-11. ... Tampa Bay's road trip continues Saturday in Edmonton.