Canucks Emerge Victorious After a Battle of the Brothers in New Jersey
The Vancouver Canucks continued their six-game road trip to face off against the New Jersey Devils. The Canucks last played the Devils at home in October, losing 6-0. This wasn’t a full Hughes brothers battle as star Devils forward Jack Hughes is out for the rest of the season due to a shoulder injury, but Quinn Hughes competed against his younger brother, defenseman Luke Hughes, for the fourth time in their careers. After this battle of brothers, the Canucks narrowly came out on top for their first win on the road trip.
The game was off to a slow start with relatively low activity in the first 20 minutes. The Devils outshot the Canucks seven to five, but the Canucks emerged from the first period 1-0. Pius Suter scored his 21st goal of the season, assisted by Marcus Pettersson to earn Vancouver the lead. Devils defenseman Johnathan Kovacevic was called for high-sticking against Jake DeBrusk, putting the Canucks on a two-minute power play. Unfortunately, nothing came out of the power play, and the score remained 1-0 at the end of the first period.
Things began to heat up in the second period as the Devils just barely continued to outshoot the Canucks 12 to 11. The Devils went on a power play following a too-many-men-on-ice call against Vancouver, served by Linus Karlsson. This power play didn’t lead to anything for the Devils, but shortly after, Teddy Blueger was called for tripping against Tomas Tatar, sending the Devils to another power play. During the two-minute power play, Timo Meier found the goal with an assist from Dawson Mercer and Jesper Bratt for his 21st goal of the season. This tied the game at 1-1 and the Canucks were unable to regain the lead.
The third period was even more intense as Vancouver finally began to outshoot the Devils. Kovacevic earned another penalty early in the period for high-sticking against Kiefer Sherwood, sending the Canucks to a power play. Unfortunately for Vancouver, they did not complete any shots during those two minutes. Timo Meir found the goal once again with assists from Brenden Dillon and Nico Hischier to give the Devils a 2-1 advantage. The Canucks were quick to respond as Jonathan Lekkerimaki scored with assists from Derek Forbort and Nils Aman for his third goal of the season. The Canucks lead didn’t last long as Erik Haula scored his ninth goal of the season with an assist from Brian Dumoulin. With under a minute remaining in the third, Suter tied the game once more with assists from Jake Debrusk and Quinn Hughes, sending the game into overtime.
Overtime was a hot period, with near shots coming from both teams. However despite both of the teams putting up great efforts, the score remained tied at the end of overtime, and the teams prepared for a shootout. For the first three shootout attempts on both teams, only one shot was made for each team, Debrusk successfully landing the only goal for the Canucks, and Bratt for the Devils. The additional shooters came out to hopefully finish off the game and Lekkerimaki grabbed his first career shootout goal, winning the game for Vancouver.
This was Thatcher Demko’s first game back in goal after missing nearly seven weeks due to an injury. You wouldn’t have known he had missed any time at all as he played an elite game with a save percentage of .880. Just before the puck dropped it was announced by head coach Rick Tocchet that Elias Pettersson and Nils Hoglander who were injured during Saturday’s game against the New York Rangers had been sent back to Vancouver for further evaluation and would not be on the ice. Despite these setbacks, the Canucks were able to fight hard and emerge victorious.
This was a big game for Vancouver and a very necessary win. Had they faced a regulation loss, their chances of claiming a spot in the playoffs would have dropped to nine. However, the Canucks found their rhythm and intensity and were able to claim their first win on this road trip and defeat the Devils for the first time this season. This was Quinn Hughes’s second time winning against his brother Luke Hughes.
