Kevin Lankinen made 26 saves for his fourth career shutout as the Vancouver Canucks spoiled the Philadelphia Flyers’ home opener with a 3-0 victory on Saturday night.
Nils Hoglander, Brock Boeser and Kiefer Sherwood scored for Vancouver, which improved to 2-1-0 on its four-game road trip. The Canucks will complete their trek Tuesday in Chicago before heading back to Western Canada.
Samuel Ersson made 29 saves for the Flyers, who had been 4-0-1 in their previous five home openers and had not been shut out in their first home game since 1999. Philadelphia defeated Vancouver on the road in its season opener — a 3-2 overtime triumph on Oct. 11 — but was unable to complete a sweep of the season series.
In fact, the Flyers have lost four games in a row since defeating the Canucks eight days ago. They were particularly lifeless in this one, registering one takeaway and 18 giveaways and getting outhit 37-28 by the Canucks.
Vancouver’s first goal came late in the first period on a sequence of nifty passing. Conor Garland found a wide-open Elias Pettersson in the slot, and Pettersson sent a sharp pass to the right of the net, where Hoglander rammed it home for a 1-0 lead.
The Canucks’ second goal was impressive, as well. With the puck loose in the crease, Tyler Myers slipped a no-look, backhand pass to Boeser, who corralled the puck on his backhand and deposited it into the net.
Sherwood made it 3-0 just 50 seconds later. Teddy Blueger won an offensive-zone faceoff directly to Sherwood on the left wing and he wristed it, in one motion, past Ersson.
Travis Sanheim paced Philadelphia with five shots, while Morgan Frost and Owen Tippett had four shots apiece. The Flyers went 0 for 3 on the power play, and the Canucks were 0 for 2.
Myers played in his 1,000th NHL game for Vancouver.
–Field Level Media
