During the first intermission, Head Coach Rick Tocchet said they talked about needing to be better at holding onto pucks and winning battles and they came out and did that in the middle frame.
“The second period was a big response that helped us win the game,” Tocchet said.
He noted some good play from the third line – Dakota Joshua, Teddy Blueger, and Conor Garland – that “dragged us in the fight,” Tocchet shared, adding that J.T. Miller, the defence, and Thatcher Demko all gave the team a chance to win the game.
With a big second period, the Canucks kept the same toughness through a hard-fought third period and Boeser felt everybody was dialed in to get the job done.
“We knew it was going to be a hard 20 [minutes] to close out there,” Boeser said. “They made a push, but I thought we held in there pretty well and tried to make a push in the last five minutes, I’m just proud of our team to respond like that.”
Game Recap
The Blackhawks drew first blood, Nick Foligno scored in the crease on a tip-in.
With three power play opportunities in the first, Elias Pettersson found the back of the net off a pass from J.T. Miller to equalize heading into the first break.
In the second, Foligno scored his second of the night on the power play.
To kick off the Canucks three-goal barrage was Joshua, redirecting a shot from Garland. Boeser gave the Canucks their first lead of the game scoring a two-on-one goal. The game-winning goal was tipped in by Ilya Mikheyev off a shot by Tyler Myers from the point, giving Vancouver a 4-2 lead.
Chicago forward Cole Guttman scored on the power play to bring the Blackhawks within one goal but the Canucks held the lead to take the game 4-3.
The Canucks head to Nashville next for a Tuesday night tilt with the Predators on December 19th at 5 p.m. PT.
