Canucks: 3 takeaways from dominant 5-2 win over Rangers
The Vancouver Canucks are starting to heat up.
After dismantling the Calgary Flames by a score of 7-1 to wrap up their homestand on Thursday night, the team headed east to kick off their four-game road trip against Artemi Panarin and the New York Rangers.
Vancouver was on a bit of a roll heading into Madison Square Garden, having won four of their past five games, but definitely had a daunting task ahead of them with the Rangers, who have been one of the top teams in the Metropolitan Division all year long.
Cue the praise.
Vancouver was able to hit the ground running on Sunday night, showcasing good speed, puck movement and physicality en route to one of their most complete victories of the year.
With the win, Vancouver was able to inch their way closer to the second and final wild card spot in the Western Conference, now just sitting three points back of the Dallas Stars, who leaped over the Edmonton Oilers after their 2-1 regulation loss on Sunday.
Without further ado, here are three takeaways from Sunday’s 5-2 win in New York:
Demko does it again
There’s no doubt that Thatcher Demko has easily been the team’s MVP all season, and he proved that point once again on Sunday night.
New York appeared to be the better team at the beginning of the opening frame, forcing Demko to make a few stops early on, including a big left pad save on Mika Zibanejad in tight. The Canucks were able to collect the puck and start a counter-attack on that same play, which eventually led to Tanner Pearson’s 10th goal of the year to open the scoring.
Demko continued his heroics throughout the remainder of the first period, turning aside Chris Kreider on a breakaway, as well as robbing K’Andre Miller at the back door with a sprawling right pad denial before Tyler Myers was able to double the lead just before the first intermission.
The Canucks were able to pick up some of the slack in the second period, outshooting New York by a margin of 7-2 in the first 10 minutes, but Demko still had to be sharp. The former 2014 second round selection once again stymied Kreider, who was looking to break the shutout on another partial breakaway halfway through the frame.
The Rangers were eventually able to accomplish that task halfway through the final frame, thanks to Alexis Lafrenière’s 12th goal of the season, but the Canucks were fortunately able to close out the game for their netminder, with Elias Pettersson finding the empty net with just over two minutes to go.
Demko even managed to notch the primary assist on the play.
In the end, Demko turned aside 31 of 33 shots faced, including 14 in the third period alone.
With the victory, Demko was able to improve his record to 23-16-2 with a .916 SV% and 2.60 GAA. More importantly, however, Demko continues to provide the team with multiple bursts of energy throughout the contest, and his teammates are finally starting to take advantage of those key momentum swings.
Let’s hope they can continue to return the favour for their All-Star netminder.
Lammikko, Highmore lead the depth scoring once again
Don’t look now, but the Canucks might have one of the hottest fourth lines in the league with Tyler Motte, Juho Lammikko and Matthew Highmore.
Heading into Sunday’s game, the trio had been on a bit of an offensive tear, combining for nine points in the past four games, and they made sure to carry that production into the Big Apple.
After surviving some intense pressure in their own end to start the second frame, the fourth line was able to counter right afterwards. The play started with Motte who, after retrieving the puck behind Alexandar Georgiev, was able to send it hard around the boards and eventually onto the stick of Luke Schenn at the blueline.
Without hesitation, Schenn directed the puck back towards the Rangers’ net, giving Lammikko the perfect opportunity to skillfully deflect the puck over Georgiev and into the back of the cage to extend his team’s lead to three.
With the tally, Lammikko now has three goals in his past six games, to go along with two helpers.
The fourth line was also rewarded with some powerplay time, and they made sure to make the most of it. With just nine seconds left to go on their man advantage, the second unit was able to draw up a similar play to the third goal, with Oliver Ekman-Larsson playing the role of Schenn at the blueline and Highmore playing the role of Lammikko in front of the net.
That CELLY though! pic.twitter.com/RwSZfLcRrr
— Vancouver Canucks (@Canucks) February 28, 2022
The second period tally marked Highmore’s first-career powerplay goal, as well as his first-career powerplay point.
Motte, Lammikko and Highmore would go on to combine for three points and a plus three rating on the night, with all three players logging just over 13 minutes of ice time in the victory.
Like we said, they’re so hot right now.
Special teams actually look special
Yes, you read that right.
After surrendering six powerplay goals against Toronto, San Jose and Anaheim earlier in the month, it appears that the Canucks have been able to clean up their penalty killing strategies, and they put that on full display on Sunday night.
The team found themselves shorthanded twice in the first period, but were able to fend off the Rangers on both opportunities. As expected, Demko was the main saving grace while shorthanded, but some of his teammates also took on the important responsibility, specifically Myers, who looked defensively sound in his own zone.
Vancouver finished the evening three-for-three while shorthanded, which is no easy feat against the Rangers, who currently hold the second best home powerplay success rate in the league, in addition to having three players in the top-ten for powerplay points in Panarin, Zibanejad and Adam Fox.
With the clean sweep on Sunday, Vancouver has now gone perfect on the penalty kill in their last three contests.
Their powerplay hasn’t been too shabby either, firing at an impressive success rate of 41.7% over the past week, good for second in the league. Most of their damage took place on Thursday night against Calgary, but it clearly sparked the primary unit, who were able to trap New York in their own zone for 1:51 before they finally got a whistle.
Other notes:
- With two more primary assists on Sunday night, J.T. Miller was able to extend his point streak (four goals, nine assists) to six games. The 29-year-old forward, who has been at the centre of trade rumours for majority of 2022, has now recorded three straight multi-assist outings and is halfway to beating the franchise record held by Henrik Sedin.
- Pettersson also managed to keep his point streak alive with his empty-netter. The young Swede now has four goals and seven assists in his past five contests, as well as 21 points in his past 17 games.
The Canucks are back in action on Monday night, wrapping up the second half of their back-to-back against Jack Hughes and the New Jersey Devils. Puck drop is set for 4:30pm PST.
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What are your thoughts from Sunday night’s convincing win in New York? Let us know in the comments!