J.T. Miller is now up to eight overtime winning goals as a Canuck, moving him to third all-time in club history behind Daniel Sedin (16) and Brendan Morrison (9).
The Canucks had no better team to test their overtime skills against as Capitals’ Alex Ovechkin is the NHL’s all-time leader in overtime goals with 26.
Conor Garland, who scored the Canucks’ first goal of the game, said going into overtime for a second game in a row after dropping the game to Detroit, they wanted to come out on top.
“It’s a good finish by Millsy, that’s why he’s one of the best players in the league. Not many guys can get it on and off their stick that quickly so it was a great play,” Garland said.
Head Coach Rick Tocchet needed his team to play smart and told his team to manage the puck and stay above the Capitals heading into the final frame.
“It was a mucky game, you’re going to have these games in an 82-game schedule. I thought some guys were tired, which means you need to play smart and we turned the puck over a few times halfway through the game I thought we were better as the game went on, but some games you have to play when you don’t have your legs and you’ve got to play smart,” Tocchet said.
Thatcher Demko earned his 109th win stopping 31 of 33 shots he faced.
Game Recap
Capitals forward Nic Dowd scored the first goal of the game at 1:08 of the first period, giving Washington an early 1-0 lead.
Conor Garland capitalized off a Washington line change, getting a stretch pass from Noah Juulsen and with a clear lane to the net, lit the lamp for the Canucks to square things up 1-1 heading into the first intermission.
In the second, a pass from Dylan Strome deflected off of Nils Äman and past Demko into the net, but Nils Höglander would score less than a minute later with some savvy stickwork — beating Darcy Kuemper top shelf heading into the second break tied 2-2.
“I thought Höggy was dog on a bone. Games when some guys are tired, for whatever reason, guys like Höggy shine because he’s a motor. I thought Garland and him were our best players, Garland was excellent tonight, so give those two guys a lot of credit tonight,” Tocchet said.
