On Thursday, the Vancouver Canucks and Minnesota Wild hooked up for Game 3 of their qualifying series.
Jacob Markstrom made 27 saves and the Canucks shut out the Wild, 3-0, for a 2-1 series lead.
“This is a team shutout for sure,” Markstrom said. “I want to be there to come up with some saves when the puck goes through when they shoot it at the net. It’s my job to keep the puck out of the net. Together with pretty much all of my teammates, we did a great job today. It’s a big win, it doesn’t really matter if it’s a shutout or not.”
The penalty box was a busy place for the game with both teams taking seven penalties and the Canucks striking on two of their advantages.
“That’s the game,” the Wild’s Kevin Fiala said “Sometimes we’re going to score, sometimes not. Sometimes there’s just nothing wrong. But they’re blocking a lot of shots, too much. We got to get those through and get us an opportunity to score goals. We just have to be smarter with the puck and maybe a little more patient and get some shots on the net.”
Brock Boeser, Antoine Roussel and Elias Pettersson were the Vancouver strikers.
“Feels awesome,” Roussel said “Scoring in the playoffs is what you live for, what you dream for all the time. That was pretty scary. I felt fine yesterday and went to practice and reassured myself, and today it was not even a single question (that he would play).”
Game 4 of the series will be played Friday with the Wild facing elimination.
“All our boys played really well,” Roussel said. “They blocked hard shots. … They put all of their life on the line. It fires up everybody.”
[WATCH: All Canucks vs. Wild highlights]
Alex Stalock made 26 saves in the loss.
“We thought our 5-on-5 play has been exceptional [this season],” Minnesota head coach Dean Evason said. “We thought that we were creating, getting opportunities, getting zone and possession time — but just not finding the back of the net yet. We’re all around it. If we keep doing what we’re doing, we believe that we’ll get an opportunity to break it open.”
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