ANAHEIM, Calif. – When hockey teams struggled as hard as… Vancouver Canucks If you have, you may be so desperate for a good sign that there will be more false positives than with the first rapid COVID tests.
The Canucks themselves will either prove or disprove that they are starting their way back from the bottom of the National Hockey League standings. With only a day and a half left before they visit the San Jose Sharks for Friday's matinee, the wait won't be long.
But there were plenty of encouraging aspects to Wednesday's wildly entertaining 5-4 win over the fast-paced, popular Anaheim Ducks, who led the Pacific Division and held a nine-point lead over the flagging Canucks.
There were still defensive holes that the Canucks struggled to plug, a series of terrible penalties in Vancouver, and another near-collapse when the Ducks scored twice in just over two minutes near the end of the second period to erase a 3–1 deficit.
Despite this, with the game on the line, the desperate Canucks had their best period. Their final penalty goal survived two third-period losses at 3-3.
Vancouver's reunited fourth line scored an early goal Linus Carlssonand the center of the fourth line Max Sasson gave the go-ahead to Anaheim defenseman Drew Helleson with 4:02 remaining.
And the Canucks' poor second line ended the drought with a magnificent goal. Conor Garland in the middle of the period – and could have scored another three if Brock BoserThe ending was abrupt.
And the third goalkeeper Nikita Tolopilowho is actually the fourth goalie to start for the Canucks this season, earned his second NHL win with 37 saves, including a breakaway goal against Frank Vatrano midway through the final period.
“I think I can play better,” Tolopilo said after his third NHL game since Thatcher Demko was injured and Kevin Lankinen was off. “But, yeah, the most important thing is that the team got the win. I wasn't nervous. No, it's just… it's a little different pace than the AHL. So it took a while to get used to it during the game. But I thought the third period was really good.”
As we said, in this four-game road trip the Canucks will tell us whether Wednesday was the start of something or just a blip in their downward spiral.
But, of course, there were many positive moments.
“We talked about it between the second and third periods, and frankly, we can’t even afford to go to OT,” Sasson said. “We needed to win regulation, like a four-point game. So, you know, that was important. We knew we needed to win that game, and we did it.”
“I don't know if there's any pressure,” forward Kiefer Sherwood said of trying to start a winning streak and has been the subject of trade rumors. “It's more like we take it game by game and day by day. But, you know, we believe in it. We trust the team that we have. And when we do things right, we'll get good results. If you just follow the process and the details, everything will work out.”
The Canucks (10-12-2) haven't won back-to-back games since Oct. 19.
They took a late lead on Wednesday when Quinn Hughes threw the puck across the ice to Philip Hronekwhose low shot was struck by Sasson past goalkeeper Petr Mrazek's pad and off Helleson as Sherwood crashed into the net.
“I dealt with it,” Sherwood said. “I thought, whatever, I’m just glad it went in.”
Not as excited as Sasson, who was reunited with Karlsson and Arshdeep Bains — the trio that led the Abbotsford Canucks to the American Hockey League championship in June.
“Every chance you get in this league, no matter who you play, is a big one. And especially the three of us, we talked about not scoring. I thought we played our shifts well and we scored a big goal,” Sasson said. “Baines – obviously he wasn't in the lineup for five games or something – and he comes in and makes an incredible play leading up to that first goal (by Karlsson).”
Karlsson opened the scoring at 9:49 of the first period with a rebound off the boards after Baynes curled with the puck in the Anaheim zone and set up a point shot for Marcus Pettersson.
Scoring just his fourth goal of the season, Evander Kane made it 2-0 on a Canucks power play at 11:47 when his shot clipped the stick of Ducks defenseman Jackson LaCombe.
LaCombe cut that lead in half when he fooled Tolopilo with a wrist shot for a power-play goal just nine seconds into the second period – and after three of the Canuck's four penalties were diverted to one side of the ice before the puck went the other way.
But at 9:04, Garland scored the game's goal, sliding past Helleson and Mrazek after Boeser, who finished the game with eight shot attempts, stopped on a partial breakaway and passed to his linemate.
Garland, Boeser and new center David Kampf combined for nine shots and an expected goals rate of 74 percent at five-on-five.
“I felt like we outscored them the last three games,” Garland said of his line. “And we didn't really get rewarded. But I felt like our line played really well, and sometimes it can take one line like that (to start scoring). I mean, Brock might have had two earlier… (but) it took us a few more shifts before we finally broke through. We can be a good line for us, play a lot on defense… and contribute offensively.”
Leo Karlsson scored for Anaheim to make it 3-2 at 16:19 when Vancouver couldn't defend a lost faceoff and Tolopilo couldn't move after Duck Troy Terry fell on him from the side of the net. And a series of errors, capped by defenseman Tyler Myers' inability to make a two-on-one play, led to Mason McTavish's tying goal at 18:34.
But this time the Canucks didn't fall apart.
