Vancouver Earns Second Straight Win Against the Penguins

The Vancouver Canucks recorded their win at home this season against the Pittsburgh Penguins on Friday after ending their disastrous seven-game losing streak on Thursday with a 5-4 victory against the Seattle Kraken.

Gearing up for Friday night’s game, the Canuck’s seemed like a different team, and the vibe was noticeable in the Vancouver Canucks locker room, and now, they have turned the tide and are on an Canucks official win streak.

“Obviously there’s a lot more energy, obviously the smiles on our faces,” said Bo Horvat, who scored twice on Friday. But I mean, we’ve got to dig ourselves out of the hole here. Obviously, we put ourselves in this situation. Just because we won two games, you can’t be satisfied. We’ve got to keep going here.”

Bo Horvat scored two goals in last night’s victory, Andrei Kuzmenko, J.T. Miller and Tanner Pearson scored one a piece, while assists were credited to Kuzmenko, Guillaume Brisebois, Oliver Ekman-Larsson, Conor Garland, Tyler Myers, Luke Schenn and Ilya Mikheyev. 

Rickard Rakell scored Pittsburgh’s only goal, Bryan Rust and Evgeni Malkin earned assists, Tristan Jarry stopped 28 shots, and Vancouver’s Spencer Martin stopped 35.

The loss for Pittsburgh extended their losing streak to three, and it was one that Pittsburgh’s head coach, Mike Sullivan, felt lacked effort.

“I just don’t think we’re putting a 60-minute effort together, and it’s hard to win in this league when you don’t”.

Vancouver, who had their first win of the season on Thursday, went into the game without a rest, while the Pittsburgh Penguins was coming off a three-day break after losing 4-1 to Calgary on Tuesday. With Pittsburgh outshooting the Canucks 30-19 in the second and third periods, many felt the Canucks looked tired, and if not for Spencer Martin holding fast, the result could have been a lot different.

At 24, Martin stopped 34 out of 35 shots, and that included some big saves, evidence head coach Bruce Boudreau has seen of backup goalie improving during his time with the organization.

“And that’s all I’ve seen of him,” Boudreau said. “Eight games now and he’s gotten points in eight straight, so I haven’t seen him do anything negative. And that’s great when you can have your other goaltender doing that, that makes an inner competition a little bit.”

Vancouver scored their first with 6:08 remaining in the first and went into the third with a 2-1 lead after Horvat scored his first on the night early in the second. The start didn’t look promising, as the Canucks had to fight hard to get the puck out of their zone, but the push by Pittsburgh didn’t seem to faze Martin.

“Honestly, I don’t think they had much,” he said. “We did a fantastic job obviously. They have a lot of firepower there. They did a good job getting behind the net, I thought, but we kept them to the perimeter. So it was a good game.”

After the hard fought battle, the Canucks responded with a three goal barrage that saw Kuzmenko tipping in a long shot, while Horvat scored his second of the night on a power-play, and Miller added an empty-netter. The third period collapse seems to be a trend with Pittsburgh this season and one that Boudreau feels the team managed well after dealing with the adversity.

“Every other third period has been like ‘Oh, what’s gonna happen that’s negative?’ And I think once we got through the first three minutes, and it was like, ‘OK, let’s go.’ And everybody just played,” he said. “And I thought it was really good.”

Yet, the entire game seemed like a lost cause for Pittsburgh after Evgeni Malkin was sent to the box for hooking 32 seconds into the first, and Horvat made the Penguins pay dearly for their mistake. With a neutral zone pass, Malkin fired off a shot that sailed past Jarry’s glove.

The second period gave Pittsburgh a bit of hope when Miller was sent to the box for high sticking Sidney Crosby. Capitalizing on the one man advantage, Bryan Rust fired off a shot that Martin stopped, but Rakell backhanded the rebound to bring Pittsburgh within one.

The Canucks, who were two for four during the powerplay on Friday, picked up forward Lane Peterson and defenceman Ethan Bear from the Carolina Hurricanes. The trade, which cost the Canucks a fifth-round draft pick, was the second deal of the week by Canucks general manager Patrik Allvin. The first saw him sending Jonathan Myenberg and goalie Michael DiPietro to the Boston Bruins for Jack Studnicka.

And for bettors, the fresh blood seems to be working and is a good indication that the tides have turned for the Canucks. And with competitive NHL odds with bookmakers like Betway Sports, Vancouver’s next three home games against the Devils, Ducks, and Predators could see bookies giving the Canucks favourable odds.