Demko gave Canucks real chance to upset Golden Knights in Game 7 loss

Thatcher Demko was historic for the Vancouver Canucks in the final three games of the Western Conference Second Round against the Vegas Golden Knights, but it wasn't quite enough.

In Game 7 on Friday, Demko allowed one goal on 34 shots, but the Canucks lost 3-0 to the Golden Knights at Rogers Place in Edmonton to fall one win short of reaching the Western Conference Final.
"We wouldn't be in this situation without him," Vancouver captain Bo Horvat said. "We would have liked to have helped him a little more, maybe he doesn't get peppered as much as he did, but he stood tall. He was a brick wall for us."
RELATED: [Complete Golden Knights vs. Canucks series coverage]
Demko allowed two goals on 125 shots in Games 5, 6 and 7, his first three NHL postseason starts, for a .984 save percentage.
"I felt great the whole game," Demko said. "No fatigue. I wanted to keep doing my job. I hadn't played many games, so I had a lot in the tank."
The 24-year-old made 42 saves in a 2-1 win in Game 5 and had a 48-save shutout in Game 6, a 4-0 victory. Demko had to start after Jacob Markstrom was unfit to play after Game 4 of the best-of-7 series.
Vegas outshot Vancouver in every game, including 36-14 in Game 7 and 273-169 overall.
"There was times it felt like we could have played for six hours and not scored on him," Vegas coach Peter DeBoer said. "I mean, what he did and the lightning they caught in a bottle the last three games with him and how he played, what I'm proudest of is how our group stuck with it."
Demko went 138:40 and made 98 saves between goals by Golden Knights defenseman Shea Theodore, the first at 15:12 of the second period in Game 5 and then the winning goal in Game 7 at 13:52 of the third period.
"I thought it was way more than 98, to be honest, I thought it was a couple hundred," Theodore said. "He's a great goalie. I thought we had a lot of quality chances. ... It was good to see that one go in."

Demko was trying to become the second NHL goalie to win his first three playoff starts with his team facing elimination in each game (Manny Fernandez for the Minnesota Wild in Games 5, 6 and 7 of the 2003 Western Conference Quarterfinals against the Colorado Avalanche).
"Almost to a man you could say how proud you are of our group, and definitely he's one of them," Vancouver coach Travis Green. "Whenever you see a young player have success as a coach, you're happy for them. ... Yeah, I'm happy for [Demko]. I've been with him a while (at Utica of the American Hockey League) and it's good to see him raise to this level."
Vegas goalie Robin Lehner made 14 saves to become the 15th goalie to get three shutout wins in a Stanley Cup Playoff series.
The Canucks had two shots on goal during 11 minutes of power-play time in Game 7 that included five minutes spanning the second and third period when Vegas forward Ryan Reaves was given a match penalty for an illegal check to the head of Vancouver forward Tyler Motte.
"When you play a team a lot in a series, they're going to adjust," Horvat said. "For us, we obviously could have scored on a couple of our power plays there and got a lot more opportunities, so obviously that's disappointing. It's just something we have to learn from. Special teams is a big part of the game.
"Obviously it's proven again tonight. They get one on their power play, but our penalty kill was unbelievable in the whole series too. It's a game of inches and we should have found a way to get one on the power play for sure."
The final five games of the series were played in seven days.
"I felt like it," Green said. "I mean they're a big, strong, fast team. I know we left everything out there. Our guys were coming off the ice panting and tired. It's easy to say you're tired. It's Game 7. You've played a lot of games. I think [it was] 17 games in 34 days, but we're not going to use that as an excuse. We still had a chance to win the hockey game."