The game was dramatically one-sided. The Canucks almost won anyway.
Sebastian Aho ripped home his 17th career OT winner with 31-seconds remaining in the extra session to give the host Carolina Hurricanes a 4-3 win. The Canucks played keepaway for the first three minutes of overtime, a strategy that ultimately backfired and was boring as hell.
It didn’t help that they didn’t have captain Quinn Hughes, sitting out a game for the fifth time this season and for the first time since he missed the match in Minnesota against the Wild on November 1st.
His absence showed. The Canes controlled play while dramatically outshooting and out-chancing the Canucks for sustained periods of time.
With Vancouver’s number-one goalie Thatcher Demko going on injured reserve earlier Friday, it was all about Kevin Lankinen in net. He kept the Canucks in the game. His club was outshot 38-17 on the evening.
Vancouver somehow managed to almost win this thing. After Conor Garland scored at 3:13 of the 2nd period, the Canucks took a 3-2 lead into the 3rd. They didn’t hold on. Taylor Hall tied the game on a beautiful passing play down low at 6:26.
Earlier on the night, Andrei Svechnikov scored twice for Carolina just 54-seconds apart in the 1st period. Special teams played a big role. Both squads went one for two with the man advantage with forward Elias Pettersson adding a shorthanded goal for Vancouver.
Hughes’s usual D-partner Filip Hronek left the game very late when the league’s concussion spotter ordered him off the ice. His head coach Adam Foote confirmed that information postgame, but didn’t provide an update on any injury Hronek may have suffered.
Vancouver slipped to a game below .500 on the season with back-to-back games coming up Sunday and Monday to finish up their three-game roadie. They’re in Tampa to face the Lightning and then across the Sunshine State to battle the Panthers the next night.
Earlier Canucks:
— Canucks Lose Demko And 5-3 Game To Jets
