Sports
The Canucks Ready For All-Canadian Second-Round After Eliminating Nashville
Nashville, Tennessee – Vancouver coach Rick Tocchet won’t deny that being one of the NHL’s last eight clubs standing matters a lot.
An all-Canadian second-round matchup versus the Edmonton Oilers?
Even better.
“We know the next series will be tough,” Tocchet said Friday night after his Canucks defeated Nashville 1-0 in Game 6.
AP – VOR News Image
The Canucks Ready For All-Canadian Second-Round After Eliminating Nashville
The Jack Adams finalist for NHL coach of the year led the Canucks from 11th in the Western Conference last year to third this season. They won the Pacific Division with 109 points and all four games against Edmonton.
The Canucks survived a low-scoring series against Nashville, with the final four games decided by one goal.
With 1:39 remaining, Pius Suter broke a scoreless tie with his second goal of the postseason, becoming the latest winner in a Canucks series-clinching game. That surpassed Daniel Sedin’s goal with 2:03 remaining in Game 6 of the 2010 conference quarterfinals.
Even so, the Canucks had to kill a penalty in the last 33.9 seconds when Nashville removed goalkeeper Juuse Saros for an extra attacker.
Canucks captain Quinn Hughes, a Norris Trophy finalist, said it was a fantastic feeling.
Vancouver had not won a playoff series outside of the epidemic bubble in 2020 since reaching the Stanley Cup Finals in 2011. During that run, the Canucks also won the series against the Predators in Game 6 in Nashville.
AP – VOR News Image
The Canucks Ready For All-Canadian Second-Round After Eliminating Nashville
“We stuck to what we wanted to do the whole game,” he remarked. “We did not crack. We played excellent team defense. I think (rookie goaltender Arturs Silovs) played brilliantly. We knew we would have our looks. Brock made an excellent play, and Pius delivered an outstanding finish.
The Canucks are now in the second round, having missed the playoffs for the seventh time in franchise history last season. They advanced in 2020, 2009, 2007, and 1974.
This will be their first postseason series against the Oilers since 1992 when Edmonton won the second round in six games. The Oilers have been resting after defeating the Los Angeles Kings in five games on Wednesday night.
Tocchet will have to choose which goalie to start. Thatcher Demko, a Vezina Trophy finalist, has resumed skating following an injury that sidelined him after Game 1, and Casey DeSmith has been well enough to back up Silovs in the last two games.
All three goalies won at least one game in the first round, marking only the seventh occasion in NHL history that a team won a playoff series with at least three different goalies and the third in 50 years. Philadelphia did it in 2011; Detroit did it in 1988.
Silovs made 28 stops to become the 14th rookie goalkeeper in NHL history to complete a series with a shutout and only the fifth in 30 years. Silovs, at 23 years and 42 days, became the youngest goalie in franchise history to record a postseason shutout. Demko was the only other goalie to do so before reaching 25.
AP – VOR News Image
The Canucks Ready For All-Canadian Second-Round After Eliminating Nashville
“For him to step in as a young kid like that, into playoff games, big games, and play the way he did, it was awesome,” defenseman Tyler Myers said of Silovs. “It was great to see.”
Vancouver will need to generate more offense after taking 92 shots in the first five games. That was the fewest to begin a playoff series through five games since 1960, trailing only Washington, which had 90 in the 1998 Eastern Conference playoffs.
“Hopefully, some of those goals will go in for us in the next series,” he said.
SOURCE – (AP)
