The Vancouver Canucks cooled off the Calgary Flames at Rogers Arena on Fan Appreciation Night with a 4-1 win to secure the Pacific Division Title.
Head Coach Rick Tocchet reflected on the work his team put in this season and clinching the division on home ice is something his group should be proud of.
“The guys did a hell of a job all year. Let's face it, nobody really picked us to win the division either, so you got to give the players a lot of credit. The game wasn't a Picasso obviously, but you got to take the positive, we won the Pacific tonight, so really happy for the guys. It's a big honor and the guys should enjoy it,” Tocchet said.
Tyler Myers got things going for the Canucks on a shorthanded goal, his second shorty and fifth of the season which Tocchet said was big for his group.
“It got us energized. That tic tac toe, the other one [goal] from Petey’s line was nice. And then I think we're just waiting for the clock to go and we were stopped playing a little bit, but winning 4-1, locking it down and obviously Demmer, I thought Demmer was excellent tonight,” Tocchet said.
In Thatcher Demko’s first game back since March 9, he turned aside 39 shots; 31 of those were in the second and third frames of the game.
“I feel pretty good. Definitely some stuff that I want to clean up, but I think the important thing is just getting back and seeing some game action. Getting the win was great on fan appreciation night and clinching the division was great, so a lot of really good positives to take away from it,” Demko said.
The Canucks have a 50-22-9 record with one regular season game left to go and this is just the third time in franchise history the team has reached the 50-win mark.
Awards
The Vancouver Canucks announced their team awards throughout the game and the awards as voted by the fans were as follows:
J.T. Miller took home 2023-24 Cyclone Taylor Trophy for MVP, Pavel Bure Award for Most Exciting Player and Cyrus H. McLean Trophy as the Canucks leading scorer.
Quinn Hughes won the Walter (Babe) Pratt Trophy for Best Defenceman for the fifth season in a row, and the Daniel & Henrik Sedin Award for exemplifying community leadership.
Dakota Joshua took home the Fred J. Hume Award for Unsung Hero for the second year in a row
Elias Pettersson won Most Three Stars Selections.
Game Recap
The Canucks took a 2-0 lead in the first period with a shorthanded breakaway goal from Tyler Myers. Teddy Blueger hit Myers with a tape-to-tape pass, and he fired a shot that found the back of the net.
“A great pass by Teddy. It kind of looked like he was going to dump it, I think that's why they started leaning and then he made a nice pass. I was fortunate enough to finish it,” Myers said.
