In Vancouver, Thatcher Demko made his return to the Canucks crease on Tuesday night, and made 39 saves in a 4-1 win over the visiting Calgary Flames. 
The win clinched the Pacific top spot for the Canucks.
“He’s one of the best in the League and it’s different having him,” defenseman Quinn Hughes said of Demko. “[Goalie] Casey [DeSmith] has been great for us and same with [goalie Arturs Silovs], but having but [Demko] back there, it’s a whole new thing.”
Demko had missed 14 games with a knee injury.
“I felt pretty good,” Demko said. “Definitely some stuff I want to clean up, but the important thing is getting back, seeing some game action, and obviously getting the win was great, fan appreciation night and clinching division was great.”
The Canucks improved to 50-22-9, with one game left on the slate.
“Honestly, I’m just happy we won the Pacific Division,” Vancouver coach Rick Tocchet said. “The guys did a [heck] of a job all year. Let’s face it, nobody really picked us to win the division, so you’ve got to give the players a lot of credit. The game wasn’t a Picasso, obviously but you’ve got to take the positive: we won the Pacific tonight. So, really happy for the guys. It’s a big honor and the guys should enjoy it.”
The Canucks took a 2-0 lead in the opening stanza to take control of the game.
Tyler Myers staked the Canucks to a 1-0 lead, scoring off a shorthanded strike at
Nils Hoglander pushed the advantage to 2-0 at 13:28.
“That was a nice shot, [Myers] jumping up in the play,” Tocchet said. “It was a big one, got us energized and that tic-tac-toe with [Pettersson’s] line was nice. And then we kind of were just waiting for the clock to go and we stopped playing a little but winning 4-1, locking it down and obviously [Demko] was excellent.”
Calgary dropped to 37-39-5.
“I thought their goalie was really good,” Flames coach Ryan Huska said. “The saves that he made, some of them were harder than he made them look, and he did a good job of controlling his rebounds.”
In the middle frame, Dakota Joshua stretched the lead to 3-0 at 1:58. scoring off an odd man rush.
“We made three mistakes on coming back in our own zone off the rush, we lost people, and then one turnover,” Huska said after praising his team’s effort. “But other than those mistakes, I liked what we did tonight.”
Brayden Pachal closed the gap to 3-1 at 10:56 of the third period, scoring off a wrister from the left circle.
“It definitely feels good,” Pachal said. “You wish it’s sparked a little bit of a comeback. It still feels nice but would have felt a lot sweeter with the win.”
J.T. Miller made scored at 15:02, scoring from the left circle for a 4-1 lead and final count.
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