Kiefer Sherwood registered his third career hat trick Friday night, when the Vancouver Canucks continued their surge following the Quinn Hughes trade by beating the New York Islanders, 4-1, in Elmont, N.Y.
The hat trick was the second of the season for Sherwood, who scored all three of Vancouver’s pre-shootout goals in a 4-3 win over the St. Louis Blues on Oct. 30.
David Kampf opened the scoring in the first for the Canucks, who have won three straight — all on the road — since dealing Hughes, their captain and leading scorer, to the Minnesota Wild last Saturday.
Goalie Thatcher Demko carried a shutout deep into the third and finished with 22 saves. Demko, who was in net for Tuesday’s 3-0 win over the New York Rangers, went a career-long 150:53 in between goals.
Anders Lee scored with 5:05 left for the Islanders, who have lost consecutive games for the first time since a three-game skid from Nov. 26-30. Goalie Ilya Sorokin recorded 26 saves.
The Islanders squandered a 58-second 5-on-3 power play early in the first before the Canucks took control by scoring three times in a span of under seven minutes.
A turnover by Islanders defenseman Adam Boqvist led to Kampf’s first goal of the season at the 8:57 mark. Boqvist briefly controlled the puck behind the net, but Jake DeBrusk poked it free and passed to Kampf, who shuffled to his forehand and shoveled a shot under Sorokin’s glove.
Canucks left winger Evander Kane appeared to commit a turnover when his clearing pass into the neutral zone landed near Islanders defenseman Matthew Schaeffer. But Sherwood beat Schaefer to the puck, bore in on Sorokin and fired a shot beyond his stick with 9:25 left.
Sherwood scored on the power play with 4:13 remaining. Canucks defenseman Filip Hronek, in the right faceoff circle, wound up as if he was about to shoot but instead passed to Sherwood, whose shot from the slot caromed off the top post.
With Sorokin pulled for the extra attacker, Lee ended Demko’s shutout bid with 5:05 left, when he took a nifty no-look between-the-legs pass from Cal Ritchie and buried a shot into the right corner of the net.
Sherwood capped the hat trick with an empty-netter from the neutral zone with 1:23 remaining.
–Field Level Media
