After earning points in four of five games of an eastern road trip, the Vancouver Canucks open a brief two-games homestand on Thursday against the Detroit Red Wings.
It’ll be the first home contest since Jan. 27 for the Canucks, who lead the NHL with 78 points thanks in part to a glossy 18-4-2 home mark. Vancouver holds a 10-point lead over the defending Stanley Cup champion Vegas Golden Knights in the Pacific Division.
The Canucks went 3-1-1 during the eight-day road trip which followed their bye week and the All-Star Game break and capped it off with an impressive 4-2 win at Chicago on Tuesday.
Conor Garland scored twice, Dakota Joshua had a goal and two assists and Thatcher Demko made 22 saves for his league-leading 29th victory.
Vancouver held the Blackhawks to only one shot on goal over the first 19:29 while building a 1-0 lead on Garland’s first goal of the game and extended the lead to 3-1 after two periods. Joshua’s 13th goal of the season made it 4-1 early in the third period.
Vancouver, which improved to 12-1-3 over its past 16 games, hosts Winnipeg on Saturday before departing on another three-game trip to Minnesota, Colorado and Seattle. The schedule becomes much more favorable in March when the Canucks play nine of their 12 games on home ice.
“We’ve got a quick turnaround,” Canucks coach Rick Tocchet said. “Get the guys re-energized. Got two games and then we go on the road again. It’s really about re-energizing the players and, obviously, getting back in our own building.
“I think it’s been about two, three weeks since our fans have seen us play. Hopefully, we can give them something to cheer about Thursday.”
Thursday’s game will be Detroit’s second of a four-game road trip, which began with a 8-4 loss at Edmonton on Tuesday as Connor McDavid dished off a career-high six assists for the Oilers.
The Red Wings had rallied to tie the game at 3 after two periods on consecutive goals by Joe Veleno and Patrick Kane, but Edmonton scored four times over a 14-minute span to start the third period.
“It’s going to be a frustrating game to watch back, because we did a lot of good things to get a game like that back to 3-3,” Detroit coach Derek Lalonde said.
Alex DeBrincat, David Perron and Patrick Kane each had a goal and an assist in the loss for the Red Wings, who have a two-point lead over New Jersey for the final wild-card spot in the Eastern Conference.
Detroit also lost the services of starting goaltender Ville Husso midway through the first period. Husso, making his first start since Dec. 18, stopped the first six shots he faced but did the splits trying to stop a Leon Draisaitl goal at the 8:48 mark and then skated straight to the locker room.
Alex Lyon, who started 15 of the previous 16 games, finished up and allowed seven goals on 29 shots.
This is the second of two meetings between the two teams. Detroit won the first one at home last Saturday, 4-3, on an overtime penalty shot by defenseman Jake Walman.
–Field Level Media
