Canucks aim to end winless Eastern road trip vs. Lightning after late loss to Panthers

The Story

The Vancouver Canucks will try to end a winless six-game road trip through the Eastern Conference when they face the Tampa Bay Lightning on Saturday afternoon.

Vancouver’s trip follows a Thursday loss to the Florida Panthers in which it led by two goals late. The Canucks played 51 minutes of shutout hockey, but Brady Tkachuk scored twice in the final nine minutes, including the tying goal with 13 seconds remaining after Florida pulled its goaltender. Tkachuk then added a game-winning marker in overtime on a curl-and-drag, as Florida won 3-2.

Leevi Merilainen made 36 saves for Vancouver in the loss. Elias Pettersson and Liam Ohgren scored for the Canucks, while Filip Chytil recorded an assist in his season debut after injuring his shoulder in preseason.

Canucks goaltender Leevi Merilainen said, “I thought overall we played pretty well. We’ve just got to take the positives out of this,” adding, “I know it sucks really bad right now, and we really needed that win.” Vancouver coach Manny Malhotra said the game showed a “complete game aside from the last 10 minutes,” and that the team did a better job “weathering the storm” than expected.

Malhotra also described Chytil’s return, saying, “It was a great return back in the lineup for (Chytil), just in terms of his contributions and getting back into it. His ability to transport the puck changes the dynamic of our group, for sure.”

Tampa Bay enters Saturday’s matchup after its own overtime game on Thursday against the Seattle Kraken. Victor Hedman scored his first goal of the year in overtime, splitting Seattle’s defence and sliding the puck ahead before outracing goaltender Philipp Grubauer in a 1-on-1 situation.

Seattle tied the game with less than five minutes remaining on a goal by Matty Beniers, setting up Hedman’s winner. The overtime goal was Hedman’s ninth career overtime winner, the second-most by a Swedish defenceman in NHL history behind Erik Karlsson.

The win came after Hedman missed a good portion of last season due to a variety of issues, including mental health and exhaustion. Hedman, who played 33 games and scored one goal last season, said, “I put (last year) behind me and learned a lot. I feel great,” and added that “My legs feel great,” trying to take advantage of his strengths.

Brandon Hagel scored twice for Tampa Bay, bringing him to six goals and 10 points, both team highs. Fourth-line centre Dominic James skated in his season debut and had an assist after missing time with a hand injury. James said the return was “completely different” and described it as “nothing like game conditioning and feeling that contact and getting up and down the ice.”