Dakota Joshua scored twice and goaltender Thatcher Demko posted his third shutout of the season as the host Vancouver Canucks beat the Florida Panthers 4-0 on Thursday.
Brock Boeser and Andrei Kuzmenko also scored for the Canucks, who extended their winning streak to four games. Boeser, who is second in the league in goals with 22, has netted nine goals and 14 points in a nine-game streak.
Demko made 36 saves — 15 of them in the third period — for his sixth career shutout on the night former star goalie Roberto Luongo was added to the Canucks’ Ring of Honour.
Panthers starting goalie Sergei Bobrovsky stopped 13 of 17 shots before being pulled after the second period in his team’s second consecutive shutout loss, both by the same score. Anthony Stolarz made only one save in relief, as Florida outshot the Canucks 15-1 in the third period in an ill-fated comeback attempt.
Kuzmenko opened the scoring at the 4:03 mark when he grabbed the puck among a scrum just inside the Florida blueline, and on the ensuing partial breakaway flicked a forehand inside the post for his sixth goal of the season.
Joshua doubled the lead at 13:52 of the opening frame when he scored on his own rebound, a scoring chance created by Teddy Blueger’s forecheck that created a turnover.
Joshua notched his second of the game just past the midway point with a gift from Bobrovsky. The Panthers goalie was at the bottom of the left circle and tried passing the puck across the ice, right to Joshua alone in the slot, and he buried his sixth of the season into an open net.
Boeser’s power-play goal at 15:41 of the middle frame rounded out the scoring. He netted a rebound tap-in tally during a five-on-three advantage for his 22nd of the season, which puts him one behind Toronto Maple Leafs star Auston Matthews atop the league.
–Field Level Media
