Suter Scores Two, Canucks Top Sharks 3-2

The Vancouver Canucks kicked off their California road trip with a win against the San Jose Sharks.

Pius Suter buried two goals, including the game-winner in the win and is up to four goals this season.

Head Coach Rick Tocchet liked the effort from the group and felt it was an important win on their road trip.

“I thought we did some good things. Our forechecks were probably one of our best forechecking [games] of the year. We had a video on that yesterday, because I don't think we were forechecking properly. There's too many odd man rushes, still, that's something we’ve got to really be accountable for,” Tocchet said.

Jake DeBrusk felt relief scoring his first goal as a Canuck and he talked about feeling a sense of urgency to score his first goal on a new team.

“You try to stay with it, they've had confidence in me, the guys have had my back,” DeBrusk said. “It's one of those things where you just want to produce more, and to do that in the game at that point, was getting us the lead and is kind of what I do. It was nice to see it go in that's for sure,” DeBrusk said.

Tocchet was impressed with the precision and focus DeBrusk had to be able to give the Canucks a boost in the third period.

“Hell of a shot, that was dialed. That's a goal scorers’ goal, so, good for him,” Tocchet said.

Kevin Lankinen made incredible saves down the stretch and stopped 21 of 23 shots he faced.

“Every game he's played, he's given us a chance to win. He's a low maintenance guy, but he's always on the ice working on his game – I love guys that do that,” Tocchet said about his goaltender.

Goals

The first period was quiet on the scoreboard, but in the second period, Sharks’ centre Nico Sturm scored the first goal of the contest.

One key save Lankinen made in the game was in the middle frame, robbing William Eklund of a breakaway goal to extend the lead.

Suter equalized on a wrist shot from the slot off a one-touch drop pass from Nils Höglander. Conor Garland’s hard work on the forecheck made the shot opportunity possible when Höglander got his stick on the loose puck in the slot.

The Canucks and Sharks were tied 1-1 going into the second intermission.

In the third, Jake DeBrusk ripped a shot from the left circle off a pass from Quinn Hughes, giving Vancouver their first lead of the game.

San Jose pulled their goalie, Mikael Granlund scoring a goal to tie the game with just over a minute left to play.

Suter scored the go-ahead goal at 19:34 off a pass from Garland to seal the win 3-2.

DeBrusk talked about the last five minutes of the game being a wild finish and they had solid work from Garland’s line to close the game out.

“Putting ourselves in position to be up one with five minutes left and letting one in there, it's, it's not a good feeling. But the next line that went out there did an amazing job of just getting the puck in deep, and Garly made a great play, and Sutes finished it,” DeBrusk said.

Up Next

The Canucks continue their California road trip and dance with the Anaheim Ducks on Tuesday, November 5th at 7 p.m. PT.