*Photo from the Los Angeles Times*
The Vancouver Canucks were looking for something to happen, and Brock Boeser gave them that something. Boeser scored twice, Elias Pettersson added a pair of goals, and the Canucks defeated the Los Angeles Kings with a 4-1 victory on Friday night in Vancouver.
So far this season, the struggles of the Canucks have been well documented, but there seems to be some light appearing. They've gotten points in 6 of their last 10 games, 5 of which have been wins. Additionally, they've won two straight games, although still 7th in the Pacific Division.
Canucks head coach Bruce Boudreau said of the win that "I think for the most part, it was our best game of the year. Our first period was excellent. Obviously they had pushes and they're a good team, so when you're behind you do make pushes, but I thought we held on really well and I thought our goalie was really good."
After a scoreless first period, the Canucks drew first blood with Pettersson scoring his 8th goal of the season 5:40 into the second period, assisted by Andrei Kuzmenko and Ilya Mikheyev. With the Canucks on the power play 10:09 into the second, Boeser scored his first goal of the season to make the lead 2-0 with JT Miller and Quinn Hughes assisting.
Later in the second period, Blake Lizotte scored to get the Kings on the board, cutting the deficit to 2-1 with his 5th goal of the season. That didn't last long, as Pettersson added his second goal of the night 1:04 after Lizotte scored, making it a 3-1 score. Boeser then scored 5:07 into the 3rd period to make the lead 4-1 for the Canucks.
Boeser said of scoring his first two goals of the season "A little weight off my shoulders. Anytime you have a goose egg and you're supposed to score and help the team win hockey games and we're not winning hockey games, it weighs on you. That's what I get paid to do, so I've got to make sure I continue to find ways to put the puck in the back of the net."
It was Thatcher Demko who got the start for the Canucks, improving to 2-8-2 on just his second win of the season. Demko had a strong game, saving all but one of the 38 shots the Kings sent at him, posting a .974 save percentage to bring his season mark to .884 in 12 starts.
The Kings had Jonathan Quick in net opposite Demko. Quick took the loss, stopping 21 of 25 shots on goal from the Canucks, which was good for a .840 save percentage. Quick's record now sits at 6-6-1 early on in the season.
Kings head coach Todd McClellan said that "For as much as you'd like to always keep your team together and not separate it, I thought there were some individuals that let us down tonight rather than the group as a whole. Sometimes you have to play the game a certain way and it might not be the way you like it. It might be ugly, it might be grinding, it might not be cute, but that's the way you have to play it, and we had some that couldn't accept that or didn't want to, and that cost us."
Up next, the Kings are back in action on Saturday night against the Seattle Kraken as they finish a back to back, with Cal Petersen getting the start. Demko is the projected starter for the Canucks when they face the Vegas Golden Knights at home on Monday.
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