In Edmonton, the Vancouver Canucks’ Thatcher Demko made 48 saves to shut out the Vegas Golden Knights, 4-0, on Thursday night.
“My job’s the same regardless of the score,” Demko said. “I just try to keep pucks out of the net. It doesn’t matter if it’s 1-0, we’re down 1-0 or up by three. I’m just trying to make the saves I have to make to make sure they can find a way to win.”
Quinn Hughes had a goal and two points in the win.
“We got a belief in the room and lot of guys in here thought we had a good chance to win,” Hughes said. “Sometimes guys are missing families in the bubble, but what I can say is after we win games, there’s no better feeling. I think we’re really coming together here.”
The win forces a Game 7 set for Friday.
“I feel good, ready to go,” Demko said. “It’s a big Game 7. This is a game you want to play in, and as a kid you watch Game 7s, and you’re envisioning yourself in those games, so I’m just really excited for tomorrow, and I know our group will be ready.”
Vegas had a 3-1 series lead before the Canucks rallied to tie it up.
“There’s no place for frustration right now,” Vegas head coach Peter DeBoer said. “We’ve got to win one game to move on. We’ll reset, come out tomorrow, and we’ve put ourselves in a position here where we win a game, we get to move forward, and that’s what we’ve got to concentrate on.”
JT Miller and Jake Virtanen also scored for the Canucks.
“We talk a lot about defending the middle of the ice and we always try to funnel back to that area,” Miller said. “That’s probably the reason they have a lot of end-zone time. They have a lot of shots from the top and they’re taking a lot of one-timers, but we do a good job of being in the middle of the ice, trying to limit the amount of Grade A’s that we’re giving up.
“We take a lot of pride in that area of the ice, especially on the penalty kill as well.”
Virtanen scored to give the Canucks a 1-0 lead.
“Thatcher’s been our MVP [in Games 5 and 6],” Virtanen said. “He’s standing on his head back there and making some amazing saves, keeping us in games. You can see the confidence he has back there. He’s just calm and collected and playing his game.”
Bo Horvat added an empty net goal at 15:40 of the third period.
“We tend to overpass the puck a little bit; I thought early in the game we should have shot a few more pucks,” Vancouver head coach Travis Green said. “We did shoot some pucks in the third (seven shots on goal), and it’s funny what that will do when you’ve got a good net presence and you get a puck through.”
[WATCH: All Golden Knights vs. Canucks Game 6 highlights]
Robin Lehner made 19 saves in the loss.
“It’s nice that we’re going to have this opportunity tomorrow,” Vegas’ Max Pacioretty said. “You don’t want to sit around the room in the bubble and think about what went wrong to get to this point. But that being said, get some sleep, show up to the rink tomorrow energized for a Game 7. This is what you dream about, so we should be excited for the challenge.”
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