Monday March 18 - Vancouver Canucks 3 - Chicago Blackhawks 2 (OT)
Yeah, the Vancouver Canucks woke up back in their own beds on Tuesday morning in a relatively lofty 23rd spot in the NHL standings. But didn't you smile just a little when Bo Horvat delivered the dagger 16 seconds into overtime to snap the Chicago Blackhawks' five-game winning streak and take the wind out of the sails of the raucous crowd at the United Center?
Add in a record-setting moment for Elias Pettersson and a strong night in net for Thatcher Demko, and the Vancouver Canucks had some fun playing spoiler for Central Division teams, coming home after two wins in two nights.
Here are your highlights from Chicago:
After pulling out the shootout win in Dallas, Travis Green elected to not to change up his group of skaters, but did insert Thatcher Demko in net after Jacob Markstrom faced 46 shots plus a shootout against the Stars.
Vancouver came out well, playing with pace, but couldn't beat red-hot Corey Crawford in the first period. After Alex Biega drew a hooking penalty while checking Brandon Saad late in the period, Jonathan Toews gave the home team a last-minute 1-0 lead when he tipped a puck past Demko as he struggled to re-set after losing his goal stick earlier in the sequence.
Patrick Kane drew the lone assist on the goal, becoming the third player in the NHL to reach 100 points this season after Nikita Kucherov and Connor McDavid. He added a second assist on Chicago's game-tying goal in the third period and is currently on pace to surpass his career high of 106 points from 2015-16, when he won the Art Ross and Hart Trophies and the Ted Lindsay Award.
The Canucks could have been deflated by the last-minute goal when they went to the dressing room for the first intermission. Instead, they came out strong to start the second. Going into Monday's game, Corey Crawford hadn't allowed more than one goal in any of his four previous outings, but the Canucks beat him twice in just over six minutes.
Just four seconds after Marcus Kruger went to the penalty box when he was whistled for interference on Elias Pettersson, Alex Edler opened the scoring with a blast from the point at the 53-second mark of the second. Then Petey collected his record-setting 61st point when Markus Granlund collected the garbage outside Crawford's crease, picking up his 10th goal of the year and first since February 5.
After we saw Brock Boeser's quest to capture the rookie record derailed by his injury last spring, I think it's doubly gratifying to see Pettersson get over the finish line—with a comfortable nine games left in the season *and* after he was deprived of his record-setting moment on his penalty-shot attempt in Dallas.
Pettersson's points-per-game average is better than both Pavel Bure and Ivan Hlinka. And though his goal-scoring has slowed compared to the early part of the season, he now has five points in his last six games. A strong finish should quiet the doubters who have been musing on whether or not Jordan Binnington has played enough games to warrant a first-place Calder Trophy vote.
That's one silver lining if the Canucks end up finishing strong: it'll help Pettersson's momentum in piloting his rookie-of-the-year train successfully over the finish line.
Speaking of rookies, Thatcher Demko had himself a terrific outing in Chicago as well. He made 29 saves and withstood a 17-shot onslaught in the third period as the desperate Blackhawks looked for the game-tying goal—eventually succeeding when Erik Gustafsson's long shot deflected into the net off of Alex Edler.
Demko looked as confident as he's been this year. His relief minutes in that blowout against Vegas last week may have helped to loosen him up a bit, allowing him to get some ice time without having to deal with the pressure of worrying about the game's outcome.
Demko admitted that he was relieved he didn't see any pucks in overtime. Jonathan Toews was credited with the win on the opening draw, but it took just 16 seconds for Bo Horvat to turn things around and fire the winner past Crawford.
Horvat now has six points in his last five games. With the two points on Monday, he has set a new career high with 54 points, to go along with his career-high 25 goals.
The somewhat unexpected wins on this road trip are Vancouver's first back-to-back victories away from Rogers Arena since just after Christmas, in Edmonton and Calgary. With the wins, the Canucks pass Edmonton in the Western Conference standings and move within six points of the second wild-card spot but would still have four teams to pass in order to get there—and upcoming games like Tuesday's matchup between Colorado and Minnesota guarantee that at least some points will land in their way.
So don't start making playoff plans just yet. According to
SportsClubStats, the Canucks' odds of reaching the postseason more than doubled on Monday night—but they went up from 0.4 percent to 0.9 percent. Still less than a 1-in-100 chance that it'll happen.
The Canucks are off on Tuesday before kicking off their season-ending seven-game homestand against the Ottawa Senators on Wednesday.
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