The Nils Höglander-Elias Pettersson-Conor Garland line was clicking in the 4-2 win over the Calgary Flames at Rogers Arena.
It was the Canucks’ third win in a row of six games so far in their homestand.
Höglander put up a pair of goals with Garland and Pettersson chipping in assists on both. With the two goals, Höglander is now ninth in the NHL for goals at five-on-five. Höglander said it’s easy to find his linemates on the ice, but it felt especially easy tonight.
“I think we played pretty good today all game. We maybe backed up a little bit in the third there, but overall, pretty good game,” Höglander said.
Head Coach Rick Tocchet feels that Höglander has continued to improve night over night and his breakaway goal showed the 23-year-old's ability to finish and he liked the energy from that entire line.
“They were obviously our best line [tonight], I thought they were really good. Petey moving his feet, Gars doing his thing on the forecheck, and Höggy, I mean that breakaway goal, he made an unreal move, and that line was feeling it tonight,” Tocchet said.
In a “business-like” game, Tocchet said it was a good win to continue to build on their consistency. The defence kept Calgary to the outside and it was defence by committee, the Canucks blocking 21 shots.
"I’ve got to give the D a lot of credit. If we have some indecision [on] if we are going to go or not, we'll hold the middle. The thing I like is we're not diving in. Three weeks ago, we're making a few mistakes – one guy makes, the second guy [too]. Now the one guy makes a mistake and we're kind of holding the fort. That's good to see going this late in the year where we're starting to do that,” Tocchet said.
Casey DeSmith stopped 22 of 24 shots he faced.
Game Recap
Early in n the first, Höglander’s goal came off some quick puck movement on the rush with his linemates, taking a 1-0 lead into the first break.
