The Canucks had a strong second period, and showed resiliency in the third, to beat the Panthers and bring their season record to .600.
The last time Vancouver had power play goals from different defencemen in the same game was in 2015.
Quinn Hughes kicked off the scoring for Vancouver and the Canucks captain said it felt good to battle in a tight game and come away with the win.
“Thought we played well in Tampa and the bounce back tonight, it’s a good hockey team over there and I think we’re starting to play pretty solid,” Hughes said.
“I just had a really good summer and tried to prepare myself as best I could...I feel really good right now, best I ever have starting a season. For me, it’s just staying on that and continuing to push and have an attack mindset.”
On the power play, Elias Pettersson screened Sergei Bobrovsky at the right time for Hughes to connect on a shot from the point.
Less than a minute later Aleksander Barkov equalized, and the game was tied going into the first intermission.
In the second, the Canucks doubled the Panthers shots on goal with 12 of their own and won 53% in the faceoff circle. Carson Soucy scored his first goal as a Canuck on the power play from the slot to give the Canucks a one goal lead. Elias Pettersson scored off a quick pass from Andrei Kuzmenko, giving Vancouver a 3-1 at the end of the second.
“I think we knew that we struggled at the second period mark, and we knew coming in to bring our best second period and first five is what we’re saying here. We did that and like I said, we knew we needed a win tonight and guys came ready to play,” Hughes said.
Sam Reinhart scored a pair of goals in the third period to tie the game, but the Canucks stayed the course and responded less than a minute later. Phillip Di Giuseppe recovered the puck on the forecheck, finding Kuzmenko alone in front of the net for the go-ahead goal.
The Panthers outshot the Canucks 19-4 in the third, and Hughes said their response after Florida tied the game showed the team’s resiliency.
“It’s important. The crowd started getting into it obviously at 3-3 and in the last couple years we’ve let a lead slip away. So for us to kind of hold our ground and have confidence, Casey made some big saves and guys are ready to play and wanted to win the game.”
DeSmith made 33 saves of 36 Florida shot attempts, stopping both attempts on the power play.
Brock Boeser, who has five goals in 11 games against the Panthers, scored an empty-netter for his sixth goal of the season, giving Vancouver a decisive 5-3 lead.
The Canucks play the Predators on Tuesday, October 24th at 6:15 p.m.
