Vancouver Canucks have posted their 7th win of the season, trashing the Florida Panthers 7-2 last night at the Rogers Arena. The hosts have scored five goals in the first period, annihilating the Panthers’ defense, which didn’t exist in certain moments.
One by one, Brandon Sutter, Tim Schaller, and Jake Virtanen scored, forcing Florida’s coach Joel Quenneville to pull out goalie Sam Montembeault who allowed three goals in nine shots towards his net. The 22-year old began this game, replacing Sergei Bobrovsky, who needed some rest after having several tough matches.
Still, Quenneville had to put him and try to change something,
“Just wanted to change the momentum of the game and see what happened and it worked for about, what, a couple minutes?” said Panthers coach.
Bobrovsky allowed two goals in his 13 minutes on the ice, not being able to slow down the fired-up Canucks offense. Brian Boyle decreased the lead of the home team to 3-1, but that only made things worse for the Panthers.
JT Miller and Josh Leivo added two more until the end of the sequence, to put their team up 5-1. For Miller, this was a night he would never forget. Besides adding one more goal until the end of the game, the first was his 100th in the NHL.
“Honestly, you’re so wrapped up in the game that you’re not really paying attention,” Miller said. “It’s cool. Obviously I’m happy to do it. I’ve had a lot of help from other teammates along the way.”
The hosts have provided a superb efficiency in the first period, sending 15 shots towards Florida’s goal, and scoring five times.
In the lather phases of the contest, Vancouver slowed down, but even with that tallied more goals than the pale guests.
Mike Hoffman netted a powerplay goal for the Panthers with 12:58 into the second frame, but Miller delivered his second of the game 20 seconds before the end of that period.
Brock Boeser sealed the game in the final sequence with 6:40 left.
We need to add that Ellias Pettersson and Alex Edler each had three assists, making them the silent heroes of this game. Thatcher Demko recorded 29 saves for the hosts.
On the other side, Montembeault, who came back at the start of the second, ended the night with 20 saves, while Bobrovsky had 4.
“We went completely from the best game of the season to probably the worst,” Panthers captain Aleksander Barkov said. “It was 2-0, 3-0 like before we could even start playing, and it’s tough to come back in this league.”
Florida (5-3-4) defeated the Oilers in Edmonton, 6-2, this Sunday, and that was their 8th game in which they won at least a point. During that span, the Panthers played just two matches at their BB&T Center. They have one more game before heading back home, against the Avalanche.
The Canucks (7-3-1) recovered well following an overtime loss to Capitals. Travis Green’s guys are fourth in the Pacific Division but have fewer games than the Oilers and the Vegas Golden Knights. Up next, they have a three-game road trip, starting in LA against the Kings, followed by contests versus the Ducks and the Sharks.
