The Vancouver Canucks defeated the Florida Panthers 5-2 in what was a spectacular Tuesday night at Rogers Arena.
Elias Pettersson scored twice, including the 200th goal of his NHL career, and Marco Rossi added a goal and two assists. Brock Boeser had three assists and Kevin Lankinen stopped 21 shots.
Pettersson had gone 20 games without a goal before scoring twice on the power play and Lankinen got his first win in 10 starts.
The Canucks have now won two of their last three, which might not sound that good, but after the stretch this team has endured, it makes sense.
I've watched enough Canucks hockey to know when a game starts to feel fragile, even when the scoreboard looks safe. Vancouver came out with a real jump, yet there was the same familiar tension after Matthew Tkachuk tied the game in the first period.
Against a team like Florida, these are the moments that usually turn into trouble. This time, he did not do so.
game flow
At 3:49 of the first, Pettersson opened the scoring on a one-timer from the right circle following Rossi's cross-ice pass. Tkachuk replied at 11:41 when an awkward bounce from Carter Verhaeghe left him alone in front.
Peterson struck again on the power play at 13:40, with a shot that bounced off two Panthers defensemen for goal No. 200. Rossi then took a 3–1 lead late when Boeser won a puck battle and fed him a pass in front. There was some bite in that first period.
Then came the tension. Sam Bennett made it 3-2 in the second, and it looked like the Panthers were hanging on long enough to flip the script. Instead, Aatu Ratie restored the two-goal lead after a failed clearing pass, and later Drew O'Connor finished another chance from just above the crease.
As NHL.com noted, three of Vancouver's goals came when skaters were left open in front of the Florida net, and Panthers coach Paul Morris acknowledged that these breakdowns were unusual for his club.
A better night, but not a clean slate
The Associated Press reported that Lankinen was playing his 200th NHL game, while Panthers defenseman Seth Jones returned after missing 26 games.
Reuters found that Sergei Bobrovsky was making his 800th NHL appearance, but the milestone night belonged to the Canucks.
Pettersson's last goal came on January 13, making it his longest drought in the NHL. He said he's trying to simplify and shoot more, and you can see that in the way he attacks his look instead of overthinking about it.
Boeser also supported this, saying that a confident Peterson would have to let that shot go. For Vancouver, it means more than a nice night in March. This changes the feel of the room a bit.
The reality is that this win doesn't fix the season. I'm not pretending otherwise. Still, for Canucks fans who have waited a while to see Pettersson look dangerous again and for the team to actually finish their chances, it may have seemed worth holding out for a few days.
The Panthers visit Edmonton next, and the Canucks stay at home to face Tampa Bay on Thursday.
