In Vancouver Wednesday night, it was tale of two clubs going in opposite directions with the Canucks winning their fifth straight and the Arizona Coyotes losing eighth straight game.
Ryan Miller made 22 saves for the 3-0 shutout win.
Three of his toughest saves came off shots from Radim Vrbata, Brendan Perlini and Christian Dvorak as time was winding down.
“Got the right side of the post on [Vrbata’s] shot,” Miller said. “He’s a good shooter and I was lucky on that one, but overall a great effort by our guys. I thought we controlled the neutral zone pretty well, no odd-man rushes, and that kept us on the right side of the puck, and guys used good neutral zone pressure to create some speed and get some breakaways and capitalized.”
Sven Baertschi scored for the Canucks in the opening frame
Brandon Sutter scored off penalty shot
Bo Horvat salted the win off a breakout in the third period.
“The whole team is playing better defensively and we’re taking a lot more pride in it,” Horvat said. “We’re doing the little things in our zone to help translate to offense.”
The Canucks improved to 19-18-3.
WATCH: All Coyotes vs. Canucks highlights
“It was a close game. The third period we tried to open it up, tried to chase them a little bit. We have to generate more chances,” Arizona head coach Dave Tippett said.
Mike Smith made 21 saves in the loss.
“We make it way too easy on the opposing goalie,” Smith said. “I don’t know how many times we hit him in the middle of the chest. There was no rebounds, nobody in front. We were close but we’re not there. If you want to win you have to be there. You can’t be off to the side. You can’t be a step behind.”
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