The Vancouver Canucks can clinch a winning record on a six-game road trip with a victory against the Detroit Red Wings on Sunday afternoon.
The Canucks pulled out a 4-3 overtime victory at the Buffalo Sabres on Friday afternoon. Forward Conor Garland delivered his best offensive performance of the season and saved his best for last, backhanding a rebound of defenseman Quinn Hughes’ shot in overtime for the game-winning goal.
Garland had two goals and an assist, stretching his point streak to a career-best seven games.
“Hate giving up the lead, but great fight in overtime there just to get another point — it’s a big point for us. It’s a tough road trip, but (we are) happy with our start,” he said.
Goaltender Kevin Lankinen made 31 saves, including a couple of quality ones in overtime.
“Lanks with that save in overtime, those are big-time plays for you,” coach Rick Tocchet said. “Obviously, Gars and Hughes — Hughes had the puck the whole time in overtime — you’re always looking for key moments from guys and those are key moments. The overall game, there’s ebbs and flows. I thought we hung in there. It was a good road game, but the key moments are the big things that stick out for me.”
Vancouver has done its best work outside of its home arena. The Canucks are 9-2-0 on the road this season.
The Canucks recorded a win at both Ottawa and Boston to start their current trip. The victory in Buffalo followed a one-goal loss to Pittsburgh. They’ll wrap up the road swing at Minnesota on Tuesday.
The Red Wings are coming off a 5-4 home loss to New Jersey on Friday. Their penalty kill unit failed them again as the Devils scored on three power plays. Detroit is last in the league with a penalty kill percentage of 66.2.
Detroit jumped out to a 2-0 lead. The Devils scored on their first power play, then were awarded another on an unsuccessful challenge by Red Wings coach Derek Lalonde. New Jersey converted again.
“On the penalty kill, we take a lot of pride to get it done,” forward Tyler Motte said. “We had an opportunity to get out of the first period and have a lead and we didn’t get it done.”
The Devils increased their lead to 5-3 early in the third period on a four-minute power play. The Red Wings scored 22 seconds later but couldn’t produce the tying goal in the final 16 minutes.
“Every team we play, it feels like, has a lot of skilled players,” forward Lucas Raymond said. “The Devils have a lot of firepower up front. But if we do what we’re supposed to do, we can play against any team. Their power play was a huge part. We had some looks on our power play and we didn’t capitalize as much.”
Raymond extended his goal streak to five games in the first period, while Motte and Justin Holl scored their first goals of the season.
Vancouver and Detroit split their two-game series last season.
–Field Level Media
