Demko had lost four of his previous five starts (1-4-0).
“[Demko] is a world-class goalie,” Canucks coach Rick Tocchet said. “I have a ton of confidence in the guy, so that’s why we started him. He was awesome tonight.”
Hughes had his third straight multipoint game and has 11 points (five goals, six assists) on a seven-game point streak. The Canucks captain leads NHL defensemen with 58 points (14 goals, 44 assists).
Linus Karlsson scored his first NHL goal for the Canucks (23-17-10), who have won three consecutive games.
“Of course, you always want to score, but you have to do other things to get there,” Karlsson said. “It was just nice to see it went in. It was like a relief. You score the first and just try to keep going.”
Juuse Saros made 19 saves for the Predators (18-24-7), who have lost consecutive games after winning their previous five. Filip Forsberg’s 10-game point streak ended.
“I think we had a lot of good looks, especially in the third, to tie it up,” Predators captain Roman Josi said. “We knew it was going to be a tight game. I feel like every time we play Vancouver it’s pretty tight out there. I thought our first 10 minutes were slow, and then we got better as the game went on.”
Nils Hoglander gave the Canucks a 1-0 lead at 7:11 of the first period on a wrist shot from the slot on the rush on a pass from Hughes.
“It was nice to see [Hoglander], great shot,” Tocchet said. “I thought he had some jump tonight. Obviously [Karlsson], that’s where he’s good, around the net. It’s nice for that line producing for us.”