The Vancouver Canucks and the visiting Detroit Red Wings will each be looking for a 60-minute effort coming off a frustrating loss when they face off Thursday night.
The Canucks, winless in eight straight (0-7-1), are coming off a 6-3 loss to the visiting Carolina Hurricanes on Tuesday.
Carolina and Vancouver were tied 3-3 entering the third period, but the Hurricanes scored three unanswered goals in the final 20 minutes, dropping the Canucks to 1-3-0 on home ice this season.
It was the fourth straight contest in which Vancouver was tied or leading going into the third period and still lost.
“It’s a really good lesson for our group that when your game lacks details in the third, or when you open up the door against teams that we’ve been playing, they make you pay,” Canucks coach Manny Malhotra said. “To be in the games, obviously, a lot of good things, to be able to claw and scratch our way to stay in these games.
“It’s a valuable lesson to us that 40 (minutes) is not good enough, 45 is not good enough, 50 is not good enough in this league. We have to stay with the process.”
Forward Elias Pettersson paces the Canucks with eight assists and 11 points through 11 games, while Paul Cotter has a team-leading four goals.
Kevin Lankinen has struggled mightily, posting a 1-6-0 record and the worst goals-against average (6.40) and save percentage (.807) among all NHL goaltenders with more than one start this season. In 10 career appearances against the Red Wings, Lankinen is 5-4-1 with a .913 save percentage and a 2.46 GAA.
Vancouver center Marco Rossi missed his second straight game due to an illness on Tuesday but returned to practice on Wednesday.
The Red Wings are coming off a 4-3 shootout loss in Seattle on Tuesday, a frustrating outcome after they rallied from a 3-0 deficit in the third period.
Alex DeBrincat scored the tying goal, his sixth of the season and 300th of his career, with 17 seconds left. He also had an assist for the Red Wings, who have recorded at least one point in five straight games (2-0-3).
“I thought we put ourselves in a situation where we got frustrated (in the first two periods),” Red Wings coach Todd McLellan said. “That was taking a lot of energy out of our game. We weren’t connected, we were upset, for lack of a better term, with our play.
“We talked about it between the second and third and got a goal, and that broke the ice for us, so then we started coming back.”
DeBrincat leads the Red Wings with 11 points through nine games.
John Gibson, Detroit’s expected starter in net on Thursday, is 2-3-1 with a 3.58 GAA and an .873 save percentage. Gibson is 15-5-2 with a .933 save percentage and a 2.04 GAA in 23 career games against Vancouver.
Thursday is the first of two meetings between the teams this season, with the other set for Nov. 25 in Detroit. The Red Wings won both meetings last season, outscoring the Canucks 9-1.
–Field Level Media
