In Seattle, the Vancouver Canucks defeated the Kraken on Saturday night, 5-2, to extended their point streak to nine game games under head coach Bruce Boudreau.
he magic has not worn off the new bench boss.
“When you get all four lines scoring, that’s music to a coach’s ears,” Boudreau said. “I mean, it’s balanced scoring and it makes it difficult for other teams to play against you when everybody’s smart.”
The Canucks improved to 8-0-1 under Boudreau, and are 16-15-3 over all.
Thatcher Demko made 30 saves in the Vancouver win, it was his seventh straight win.
The Canucks took a 2-0 lead in the opening frame off goals from Vasily Podkolzin and Nils Hoglander.
“It was the best first period I think we’ve had since I’ve been here,” Boudreau said. “It makes life a lot easier when you get a lead on a team that hasn’t come back too often, so it was a good first.”
Seattle replied in the middle frame with a goal from Calle Jarnkrok to make the score 2-1.
“We put two pucks directly on their tape in scoring areas and there were some reasons that those plays came out,” Seattle head coach Dave Hakstol said. “Those can’t happen. So that’s the bottom line. Look at the first goal, and the third goal, those are pucks that are in our possession, and they ended up on their tape without a whole lot of pressure. Those are really tough plays to put on your goaltender.”
Vancouver struck for three goals in the third period.
Tyler Motte made it 3-1 for the Canucks.
“That’s part of my game,” Motte said. “Something I think I can contribute. Obviously you always want to do more. It takes some pressure off some of the top guys, [and] there are more parts of the game than just scoring, but obviously it’s a big help.”
Will Borgen hit for a goal in the third period (his first NHL goal) to make it 3-2.
The Kraken dropped to 10-19-4.
Conor Garland replied for Vancouver to give them a 4-2 lead.
“We had one of our best starts,” Motte said. “That was definitely a focus for especially the first five minutes. Sometimes that will just carry on through the first period and the second. You kind of keep pushing from there but it’s definitely a focus that we want to continue.”
Tanner Pearson added a late empty-net goal for the final strike of the match.
Philipp Grubauer made 30 saves in the Seattle loss.
“We’ve just got to keep battling,” Hakstol said. “That’s the bottom line. We were our worst enemy in a couple of areas tonight. I talked about it coming in. When you have challenges through injuries and availability for the lineup, it’s an opportunity for people to step up, step in and do a good job, and we have to have people taking advantage of those opportunities.”
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