Kevin Lankinen made 20 saves to earn his fourth shutout of the season and the visiting Vancouver Canucks defeated the Toronto Maple Leafs 3-0 on Saturday night.
Quinn Hughes had a goal and an assist for the Canucks. Brock Boeser and Kiefer Sherwood also scored, and Tyler Myers added two assists.
Lankinen’s seventh career shutout helped the Canucks to improve to 1-1-2 with one game left on their five-game road trip.
Dennis Hildeby made 15 saves for the Maple Leafs, who have lost two games in a row after a winning five straight.
The Canucks did not arrive in Toronto until early afternoon because of flight delays after their 2-0 loss to the Carolina Hurricanes in Raleigh, N.C., on Friday night.
Despite the late arrival, however, they got off to a quick start against the Maple Leafs. A point shot by Myers deflected off Boeser’s leg and past Hildeby just 31 seconds into the game. Elias Pettersson made the pass to Myers.
The goal was No. 194 for Boeser as a Canuck to move him up to 10th by himself on the team’s all-time list.
Toronto came close when Morgan Rielly snapped a shot that rang off the crossbar at 17:36 of the first period.
Toronto had the only two power plays of the first period and came up empty.
The Maple Leafs had the third power play of the game at 14:59 of the second period, and Vancouver had the better of the chances while killing the high-sticking penalty to J.T. Miller.
Vancouver took a 2-0 lead at 18:12 of the second during a six-on-five situation with a delayed penalty called on Toronto’s David Kampf. A 49-foot shot by Hughes was knocked into the goal by a Toronto player.
Hughes set up the third goal with a slick pass to Sherwood, who scored from the right circle 47 seconds into the third period.
The loss came in the first of a three-game homestand for Toronto.
The Canucks complete their trip on Tuesday against the Winnipeg Jets.
–Field Level Media
