Demko makes 36 saves, Canucks shut out Panthers for 4th straight win

VANCOUVER -- Thatcher Demko made 36 saves for the Vancouver Canucks in their fourth straight win, 4-0 against the Florida Panthers at Rogers Arena on Thursday.

It was Demko’s third shutout of the season, and his sixth in the NHL. It came on a night that started with a pregame ceremony for former Canucks goalie Roberto Luongo, who was inducted into their Ring of Honor.

“It’s poetic, right? Almost in the air,” said Demko, who heard “Luuu” chants after every big save. “A really cool evening and he’s such a first-class guy. I’m not super close to him, but every encounter I’ve had he’s treated me with respect and that’s really cool coming from someone you watched growing up.”

Dakota Joshua had two goals, Brock Boeser scored to extend his point streak to nine games, and Andrei Kuzmenko scored for the Canucks (20-9-1), who finished 4-1-0 on a five-game homestand. Boeser has 14 points (nine goals, five assists) during his streak.

“That’s a really good hockey team over there,” Vancouver coach Rick Tocchet said. “‘Demmer’ was solid. He looked big in the net and obviously had a good game for us.”

Sergei Bobrovsky allowed four goals on 17 shots for the Panthers (17-10-2), who have been shut out in consecutive losses after winning their previous three. Bobrovsky was replaced following the second period by Anthony Stolarz, who stopped the one shot he faced in relief in the third.

“Last two games, obviously we haven't scored one goal, you got to find a way,” Florida captain Aleksander Barkov said. “We're putting enough pucks at the net, but just got to find a way to battle for those second, third, even fourth chances."

The Panthers lost 4-0 at the Seattle Kraken on Tuesday. It’s the first time Florida has failed to score in consecutive games in more than 12 years dating back to Oct. 18 and 20, 2011, but coach Paul Maurice didn’t see a lot of similarities between the two games, pointing out the Seattle loss was close until late.

“We did some unusually foolish things that we just don't do,” Maurice said. “We just weren't right tonight. You have those games; I don't think it's related to the Seattle game. Prior to that we'd won three in a row. We weren't very good here tonight, but in a highly unusual way and I'll take solace in that fact.”

Kuzmenko put the Canucks ahead 1-0 at 4:03 of the first period with a breakaway shot under the glove of Bobrovsky after going around Panthers defenseman Niko Mikkola, who was caught flat-footed by a turnover, near the top of the left circle.

Joshua made it 2-0 at 13:52, lifting his own rebound over Bobrovsky in tight on the backhand after being stopped on a spin move alone atop the Florida crease.

Demko made his best save with 20 seconds left in the first period, throwing out his left pad to rob Barkov on a rebound at the edge of the crease.

“We know he's one of the best goalies in the world, so he is tough to beat if he sees the puck,” Barkov said.

Joshua made it 3-0 at 10:08 of the second period, scoring from the slot into an open net after stealing Bobrovsky’s pass from below the left circle.

“(Connor) Garland was taking away the left side, so I knew his options were kind of limited there, and I just happened to guess the right way and he passed it to me,” Joshua said. “I don’t know if they get any easier than that.”

Boeser scored his 22nd goal of the season on a 5-on-3 power play at 15:41 for the 4-0 final. Boeser’s initial redirection of a hard backdoor pass from J.T. Miller hit the far post, but he tapped in the rebound behind Bobrovsky.

Panthers defenseman Aaron Ekblad did not play the third period because of a lower-body injury, but Florida had an extra defenseman dressed in Uvis Balinskis, who replaced forward Jonah Gadjovich after warmups because of an illness.

“I don't even know if it's day to day,” Maurice said. “We'll see how he is [Friday]. We think we got way ahead of it … we had lots of defensemen, so we just shut him down.”

NOTES: Florida forward Anton Lundell missed his first game of the season because of illness. … Canucks center Pius Suter finished plus-1 in 15:01 of ice time in his first game back after missing 14 with a lower-body injury. … Vancouver forward Nils Hoglander had a four-game point streak end (two goals, two assists). ... It was the second straight game with a goal after scoring one in the previous 15 games for Kuzmenko, who dropped from the first to fourth line during the homestand.