It was a back-and-forth affair Sunday afternoon, but the Vancouver Canucks came up big in overtime, beating the Detroit Red Wings 5-4.
It was a second consecutive overtime game for Vancouver, and Head Coach Rick Tocchet liked the way his team met pressure head-on.
“I thought our first wasn’t that good, but I loved the response,” Tocchet said. “Sometimes things don’t go your way, the game’s not over. I think that we played good hockey in the last 40 minutes.”
“I liked the fight, scoring there with three minutes left - Bränns, nice shot. Then obviously overtime, hanging in there. Jake – what a night, three goals, I mean that was a hell of a goal there. That’s why we signed him up, for those type of moments and he came through for us,” Tocchet said.
Throughout the game, Quinn Hughes, Jake DeBrusk, and Kevin Lankinen climbed the franchise and NHL leaderboards setting records in different categories.
DeBrusk had his second career hat trick and his 16th career multi-goal game. So far this season, DeBrusk is tied with Alex Ovechkin and Sam Reinhart for the league lead in road goals with ten.
DeBrusk joked that he wasn't feeling particularly different coming into this game, but he liked how the team forced their way back in the game in the third period to tie it and push overtime.
“It wasn’t our prettiest game, Detroit I thought played pretty decent. We had good spurts, where we were moving the puck around as a unit of five and to be able to tie it late obviously just shows what this team is becoming about. You never want to go down after having a lead going into the third period
Quinn Hughes now officially holds the franchise record for assists by a defenceman, tallying three assists against the Red Wings for a total of 313 assists in 388 games. Hughes surpasses Alex Edler’s 310 assists in 925 games.
“It’s incredible, a great milestone,” Tocchet said. “Obviously if not the best defenceman in the league, he sure puts up a good argument because, what did I play him, 31 minutes tonight. The guy came into camp in shape, that’s why he plays 31 minutes.”
On Hughes’ big day, he gave his teammates their flowers to help him achieve the milestone.
“It feels really great, and obviously was lucky enough to catch Eddie for two years here – great player, great teammate – it means a lot,” Hughes said. “As far as the record, I think I've just been able to play with some really great players. We saw the three goals Jake had tonight and the play Petey makes off the overtime one, so just really fortunate.”
