The Vancouver Canucks kicked off their road trip with a hard-earned win in a low-scoring affair.
Conor Garland scored the go-ahead and what turned out to be the game-winning goal and said the key to the win was the team sticking to their structure – staying even keel and playing hard against a Ducks team that has been posting comeback wins this season.
“It was a tight game. Obviously, it’s hard to win in this league and we grinded it out all the way to the end. It was a good third period by us, didn’t give much, even six-on-five, and shots from the outside. Casey held in though, and did a great job for us tonight,” Garland said.
Casey DeSmith started between the pipes nearly two weeks since his last start and Head Coach Rick Tocchet said it was good for DeSmith to play in a tight game and get the win.
“He hasn’t played in a while, so those are the games you get his confidence [up], but I have to get him in again soon down the road here, but it’s nice to grind that win out for Case,” Tocchet said.
Shots on goal favoured Vancouver 31-18, DeSmith stopping 17 of the shots he faced.
Tocchet said he liked the team effort and the resiliency to bounce back from tough games and get a win, and he felt Nils Höglander’s play was exceptional this game. Höglander took care of the puck and made timely plays, coming up with loose pucks from behind the net.
“I thought Högs was one of our best forwards, he was maybe our best forward. He had some jump, kept the puck on his stick a lot, drove their D wide -- Höggy was really good,” he said.
Game Recap
Quinn Hughes quarterbacked the first play, coming down the right side and finding Höglander net front who opened the scoring for Vancouver.
