Final: Canucks captain Quinn Hughes scored on a breakaway and Vancouver won 4-3 over the Islanders in overtime. Vancouver takes over 1st place in the Pacific Division, currently holding the tiebreaker on the Vegas Golden Knights. New York falls to 0-and-4 in OT this season after blowing a two-goal lead they had in the 2nd period.
The Canucks head to Calgary to take on the Flames while the Isles head to Seattle to meet the Kraken on Thursday night.
1st Period
With the video tribute to former Canucks captain Bo Horvat out of the way in the first period, the Islanders got down to business. Horvat drew a hooking call on Ian Cole at 7:01. Twenty-nine seconds later Swedish defenceman Pierre Engvall scored his first goal of the season and the 48th of his career to put the Islanders on the board with a power play marker.
A little over a minute later Cole went to the box again, this time for firing the puck over the glass. The delay-of-game penalty would result in another New York power play goal. At 8:52 it was Brock Nelson backhanding in his own rebound down by the right goal line.
2nd Period
The power play festival continued in the second period with some familiar names on the scoresheet at Rogers Arena.
Canucks centre J.T. Miller scored his 8th goal in the last ten games and his 10th of the season to put the home team on the board on the man advantage at 4:39. He ripped a one-timer, short-side past goalie Ilya Sorokin from the right wing circle.
Then came a magic moment for the Canucks former captain. Off a turnover by current Vancouver captain Hughes, the Islanders capitalized at 8:33. A back and forth in-zone, give-and-go with Coquitlam native and former Seattle Thunderbird Matt Barzal allowed Horvat to rip a one-timer under Thatcher Demko’s left armpit to restore New York’s two-goal lead.
It lasted two-and-a-half minutes. On another power play — the Canucks came in with the 3rd most efficient man advantage in the NHL — Brock Boeser beat Sorokin blocker-side from the slot with a one-timer and his 13th goal of the season. Miller had the primary assist, his second point on the night and his 25th overall.
3rd Period
At 7:35 of the period we witnessed a scary moment when Canucks winger Andrei Kuzmenko took a Miller slapshot off his face. The shot from the left circle went of Isles D-man Scott Mayfield’s stick and appeared to hit “Koozy” under his visor. He eventually got up under his own power and left the ice holding a towel to his chin.
The incident occurred during a full two-minute 5-on-3 advantage for Vancouver. Remarkably, Noah Dobson had slashed Kuzmenko before Jean-Gabriel Pageau tripped the Russian forward on the same shift.
With 15-seconds remaining in the two-man advantage, defenceman Filip Hronek scored his 1st goal of the season and extended his point-streak to 11 games, a record for a Canucks blueliner. The righty has 16 points on the season,
Game tied 3-3.
Overtime
Both teams had chances, but it’s the current Norris Trophy favourite Hughes scoring the game winner at 2:36 on a feed from Miller.
Shots on goal finished 43-33 in favour of the Canucks. Power plays: New York 2-for-2, Vancouver 3-for-6.
Canucks 3 Stars:
1) Quinn Hughes – Makes up for his turnover with two assists and the game winning goal.
2) J.T. Miller – Goal and two assists as “MIllsy” jumps into a 3-way tie with Huggy and Petey for the NHL lead in scoring.
3) Brock Boeser – Goal and an assist, making he and Miller the first pair of Canucks since 1995-’96 to have 10+ goals in their 1st 16 games played.
ICYMI:
— Canucks Game Day; The Return Of Captain Bo
— Canucks Morning After: A 2-and-1 Roadie; Boudreau Podcast
