*Photo from Sportsnet*
Well, they weren't going 0-82, they had to win one eventually. Ilya Mikheyev scored two goals, Conor Garland added the game winner, and the Vancouver Canucks defeated the Seattle Kraken with a 5-4 victory on Thursday night in Seattle.
The Canucks had started the season with 7 straight losses, entering play 0-5-2 to start the year. They shook that off with multi goal periods in the second and 3rd, closing out their first win of the season. 3 Canucks skaters racked up a goal and an assist, while Mikheyev contributed two goals.
It was also a special night for Canucks head coach Bruce Boudreau. The first win of the season for the Canucks went down as the 600th win of Boudreau's head coaching career. It took him just 1,049 games to reach 600 wins, making him the second fastest to do so, behind 1,002 games from Scotty Bowman.
Canucks captain Bo Horvat said of Boudreau's milestone that "I mean, there's one guy that deserves it. Has had a heck of a coaching career, and we made it hard on him here at the beginning of the season. To get that one for him, it was still a nail-biter to the end for him. I'm sure he was sweating behind the bench there, and it really feels good to get him that one."
Kicking off the scoring was Mikheyev, who scored his first goal of the season 4:38 into the game, giving the Canucks a 1-0 lead to work with. The Kraken then scored two goals 1:05 apart at the end of the period, taking a 2-1 lead with Jamie Oleksiak and Jared McCann finding the back of the net for the Kraken.
On the power play at the 3:58 mark of the second period, it was Mikheyev again, tying the game 2-2 on his second goal of the night. Andrei Kuzmenko then scored a power play goal at the 14:17 mark, giving the Canucks a 3-2 lead. Just 15 seconds later, Matty Beniers tied the game for the Kraken, making it 3-3 on his 4th goal of the season.
Early in the 3rd period, the Canucks retook the lead. Elias Pettersson scored his 4th goal of the season just 1:16 into the frame, making a 4-3 game on his 4th of the season. Garland then scored the eventual game winner with an empty net goal with 1:25 left. Jaden Schwartz scored a power play goal with 30 seconds left to cut it to 5-4, but the Kraken couldn't score after that.
Boudreau said of the postgame atmosphere that "Just to hear that music in the room and know how hard they've practiced. They've never given up hope. I know it's only one game, but I mean, the spirit has never been down where we've gone into a game and go, 'Oh, woe is me.' So, I think it was a great reward for them."
Getting the start for the Canucks was starter Thatcher Demko, who picked up the win to make his record 1-5-1 this season. Demko turned aside 32 of the 36 shots he faced from the Kraken, which was good for a .889 save percentage.
Starting opposite Demko was Martin Jones for the Kraken. Jones took the loss, dropping his record to 3-3-1 so far. Jones wasn't faced with a heavy shot volume, with the Canucks sending 18 shots at him. He stopped 14 of them, recording a .778 save percentage in the loss.
Seattle head coach Dave Hakstol said of the loss that "We were the better team for most of the night, but they beat us on specialty teams by one. That was ultimately the difference in the hockey game. Five-on-5, you're not going to be able to carry momentum all night, but we carried momentum for a lot of the night."
Up next, the Canucks complete a back to back with a matchup against the Pittsburgh Penguins on Friday night, with Spencer Martin to get the start. The Kraken also play the Penguins next, facing off against them on Saturday night, with Jones in line to start again.
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