Canucks toy with Blackhawks in 4-2 decision Garland hits for double in Vancouver win

In Chicago, the Blackhawks were no match for the visiting Vancouver Canucks on Tuesday night.

The Canucks, who were scoreless on four power play chances, doubled up the Blackhawks, 4-2.

Thatcher Demko made 21 saves in the win.

The Canucks improved to 36-12-6, and took over the top spot in the NHL with 78 points.

“I thought it was a businesslike game, some good lines,” Vancouver coach Rich Tocchet said. “I thought the Garland line, obviously, was really good. I thought [defenseman Noah] Juulsen was really good tonight. I thought he was excellent. Got our two points, 3-1-1, and we get back home to Vancouver.”

Connor Garland staked the Canucks to a 1-0 lead midway through the opening stanza, with his first of a double on the night..

“Yeah, good road trip for us, 3-1-1,” Garland said. “We played some good hockey, and it’s good to kind of have that record after the All-Star break. We just have a really tough push the rest of the way, so we’ll be ready to go.”

Garland and Dakota Joshua went in on a rush into the Chicago zone and played catch with the puck before Garland poked it home for the lead.

The Blackhawks were slow out of the gate in the first period.Chicago had one shot on goal in the period, that coming in the final minute of the period. They were outshot, 12-1.

“We were aware,” Jones said. “We were definitely aware. The fans were aware. It’s embarrassing. It’s embarrassing you can’t get one puck to the net. I don’t know if we need to shoot it quicker or need to have a shot mentality a little bit more and stop being so cute in the offensive zone. I think I took a muffin one-timer at the end just to put one up there, to be honest.”

Garland collected his double at 8:18 of the middle frame, off a deflection.

The Blackhawks dropped to 14-36-3 off their seventh straight loss.

“I think we’ve been proud of how the guys have worked over the last month, but not tonight,” Chicago coach Luke Richardson said. “That wasn’t the same effort. Kind of the same result, pulling the goalie and putting a little pressure on at the end, but not the way we want to do things around here.”

Chicago got on the board with a power play strike by Tyler Johnson at 16:43 to trim the deficit to 2-1.

“Yeah, they started gaining some momentum there, and that goal stopped that a little bit and put us back in,” Vancouver’s Elias Lindholm said. “That goal came in good timing for us, and that’s what this team is doing. We have guys stepping up and scoring big goals in right moments. That’s huge.”

Vancouver replied with a marker from Nils Hoglander  at 18:28 of the second off an easy poke into the net for a 3-1 lead.

The Canucks pushed the advantage to 4-1 at 6:07 of the third period, off a strike by Joshua.

“For the most part we were good and on top of things tonight,” Joshua said. “We didn’t give them a whole lot. We were just able to keep our composure and squeak out a win. It’s just nice that we have a deep offensive team, and on any given night there’s a lot of guys that can step up and you can count on. It makes everyone else’s job a lot easier.”

The Blackhawks got one back at 13:27 of the third when Kevin Korchinski scored for the 54-2 final count on the scoreboard.

Petr Mrazek made 34 saves in the loss.

“This is a place that we need to start fast and keep exciting and keep intimidating for the other teams,” Richardson said. “We don’t want to let that slide. I think tonight was definitely a step backward, so we’ve got some work to do to try to get that back and create a tough environment for the other team.”