Thatcher Demko made 27 saves for his league-leading 33rd win as the Vancouver Canucks notched their third straight victory, a 3-1 decision over the Vegas Golden Knights on Thursday night in Las Vegas.
Quinn Hughes, Phillip Di Giuseppe and Conor Garland scored goals for Vancouver, which completed a sweep of a three-game road trip that also included visits to Anaheim and Los Angeles. The Canucks increased their Pacific Division lead to 11 points over the second-place Edmonton Oilers, who lost earlier Thursday at Columbus.
Michael Amadio scored for Vegas, which dropped to the second wild-card spot in the Western Conference with its fourth straight loss. Adin Hill finished with 32 saves while taking his sixth loss in his past seven starts. It was the fifth straight home defeat for the defending Stanley Cup champions, tying the franchise record set Jan. 21-Feb. 14, 2019.
Vancouver jumped out to a 2-0 lead in the first period with two goals in a 55-second span. Hughes got the first on the power play at 6:01 with a wrist shot from above the circles past Hill’s glove side, his 13th of the season. Elias Pettersson picked up the primary assist on the play, his 400th career point.
Di Giuseppe followed with his first goal in 30 games dating back to a Nov. 12 contest at Montreal. He fired a spinning wrist shot from the middle of the right circle through Hill’s pads on a delayed penalty.
Vegas cut the deficit to 2-1 at the 3:50 mark of the second period. Amadio snapped a wrist shot from the top of the right circle past a Nicolas Roy screen and inside the right post for his 12th goal.
Garland put the Canucks back up by two goals at 15:58 of the second when he backhanded the rebound of an Elias Lindholm shot past Hill’s blocker side.
Shortly after Roy and teammate Jonathan Marchessault both hit the post with shots, Vegas pulled Hill for an extra attacker with 2:35 to go. The Golden Knights managed just one shot on goal the rest of the way, a Shea Theodore slap shot that Demko turned away.
–Field Level Media