Canucks Finish Canadian Road Trip With 5-2 Win Over Montreal

The Canucks’ third line was cooking in Montreal, helping the club improve to 11-3-1 on the season.

Conor Garland and Dakota Joshua each had a goal and an assist, and Garland says he’s feeling good about his game and how the team is playing.

“Our top guys are producing well and our line, when we get a chip in, we will chip in and we feel good about our game as a line right now,” he said, adding, “Dak [Dakota] has had so many chances this road trip actually, so just to see him get one was good.”

“We feel confident when we’re put out there late in games and really at any time against any line. Our system is so easy to follow that if you’re focused on your detail, it makes you look good as well,” Garland said.

Head coach Rick Tocchet thought his team played a complete 200-foot game and was pleased to see his team respond from the loss in Toronto Saturday night. He talked about Garland’s play over the last half dozen games and what he’s like from the Garland-Suter-Joshua line. 

“The last five, six, seven games [Garland’s been] one of our better forwards. He’s done a nice job, I really think that line actually has been one of our better lines the last three, four games. They were our best line in Toronto so good for them,” Tocchet said.

Both teams battled for a full 60 minutes, with three goals scored between the Canucks and Canadiens in the last two minutes of play.

Casey DeSmith picked up the win between the pipes for Vancouver in the second game of a back-to-back. He stopped 30 of 32 shots and has a 4-0-1 season record.

Teddy Blueger made his debut with the Canucks after missing 14 games due to a lower-body injury and Elias Pettersson got to celebrate his 25th birthday with a win.

Game Recap

Both teams came out of the gates with pace in the first period, but neither team scored, the Canadiens edging shots on goal by a count of 9-8.

Conor Garland scored Vancouver’s first goal on a tip-in from a cross-ice pass through traffic from J.T. Miller. It was Garland’s second goal of the season after scoring the Canucks’ first goal of the year against Edmonton.

Christian Dvorak nearly equalized soon after, but Vancouver challenged the goal, and it was ruled Cole Caufield was offside.

A few minutes later, Ilya Mikheyev scored Vancouver’s second goal of the night, unassisted, capitalizing on Jake Allen having lost his stick during play in front of the net. 

Dakota Joshua scored the third goal on a rebound from a Garland shot. Garland took his second shot of the sequence with Pius Suter and Joshua crashing the net and Joshua was in position to fire it in.

The Canucks took a 3-0 lead into the second intermission, but they would be without Carson Soucy the rest of the game after he was hit on the back of his leg blocking a shot, finishing the game with five defencemen.

The Canucks had no penalty minutes through the first two periods, but the Canadiens drew two penalties in the third, just over a minute apart and were able to capitalize on the power play.

Mike Matheson scored on the man advantage with just over 13 minutes remaining in the game, Vancouver holding a 3-1 lead.

Montreal pulled Allen with two minutes remaining and Brock Boeser scored an empty-netter to extend the lead back to three goals.

Soon after, Arber Xhekaj scored to bring Montreal within two, but Phil Di Giuseppe scored a second empty-net goal off a pass from Miller, putting Vancouver up 5-2, and they rode the three-goal lead all the way until the horn sounded.

The Canucks head home and will take on the New York Islanders at Rogers Arena on Wednesday, November 15th at 7 p.m.