Conor Garland scored and Oliver Ekman-Larsson had three assists in their first games against their former team as the Vancouver Canucks defeated the visiting Arizona Coyotes 5-1 Tuesday night.
Bo Horvat, Elias Pettersson and J.T. Miller each tallied a goal and an assist for the Canucks, Brock Boeser also scored and Noah Juulsen had two assists. All-Star Thatcher Demko made 35 saves.
Lawson Crouse scored for the Coyotes, and Karel Vejmelka stopped 24 of 29 shots.
Garland and Ekman-Larsson were acquired in an offseason trade with Arizona for Loui Eriksson, Jay Beagle, Antoine Roussel and the Canucks’ first-round pick in the 2021 draft. The Coyotes used the No. 9 overall pick to select forward Dylan Guenther from Edmonton of the Western Hockey League.
After a scoreless first period, Vancouver tallied three times in a span of 2:22 early in the second.
Garland opened the scoring at 3:48 after Juulsen tracked down Ekman-Larsson’s shot in the right-wing corner. Juulsen faked going behind the net and instead fed Garland for a one-timer from between the hashmarks.
The Canucks made it 2-0 on the power play at 4:44 of the period as Ekman-Larsson’s shot from the blue line deflected off Horvat’s knee and into the net. It was Ekman-Larsson’s first multi-point game with the Canucks.
Vancouver completed its three-goal barrage at 6:10 as Vasily Podkolzin pulled the puck off the right-wing boards at the blue line and made a nifty backhanded pass to set Pettersson free. Pettersson beat Vejmelka with a wrist shot from between the faceoff circles.
The Coyotes got on the board at 13:31 of the second as Crouse found a rebound just outside the right post and put a backhander through the crease and off the far post and in.
The Canucks put the game away in the third as Miller scored at 6:20, taking the puck from Ekman-Larsson behind his own net and going end-to-end for the goal.
Boeser capped the scoring with a power-play goal at 12:50.
–Field Level Media
