Demko Dominates, Second Line Shines In Canucks 2-0 Victory Over Blackhawks

Thatcher Demko picked up a shutout, turning aside all 31 shots he faced. It was his second shutout in January and fifth of the season.

The Pius Suter-Andrei Kuzmenko-Ilya Mikheyev line combined for four points, Suter with one goal, Kuzmenko two assists and Mikheyev a helper of his own.

The Canucks have been scoring by committee and tonight was no exception. Canucks’ Head Coach Rick Tocchet says it’s nice to have different lines step up on any night.

“Sometimes you have these games and that's where you rely on your Höglander’s or Åman’s and the younger guys to give you a juice and I thought they did,” Tocchet said. “When you have a guy like Demmer who was rock solid for us, you take the two points, and you take the positives out of it.”

Tocchet felt Vancouver’s execution could have been better, going 0-for-3 on the power play, but they were a perfect 5-for-5 on the penalty kill and it was good to grab the two points and for Demko to get the clean sheet.

“I love shoutouts. I’d rather win 2-0 than 8-4 any day of the week,” Tocchet said. “It gets you in the game, it means that you're doing the right things.”

Game Recap

Suter scored the first goal net-front off a nifty cross-ice, spin-o-rama pass from Kuzmenko. Suter said it was a boost of confidence for his line who was clicking as a unit against Chicago.

“That was an unbelievable pass, a spin-o-rama back there and he found me, so it was real nice,” Suter said.

Quinn Hughes lasered a shot from the left circle off a pass from Ilya Mikheyev, putting the Canucks up 2-0 heading into the first break.

Tocchet talked about the work Hughes has put in over the offseason for his sharpshooting ability.

“It's probably the hardest shot in hockey to hit, to hit that short side,” Tocchet said. “That's a credit for him how hard he worked in the summer on his shot. His shot’s, I bet you it's about 10 or 15 miles [per hour] harder than it was last year.”

The shots were 31-29 in favour of the Blackhawks, the Canucks putting 12 shots on goal in the first frame.

Next up for Vancouver are the St. Louis Blues on Wednesday, January 24th at 7 p.m. PT.