Desperate Canucks back to win column, but still have a lot to prove

ANAHEIM, Calif. – When hockey teams have struggled as much as the Vancouver Canucks have, you can be so desperate for good signs that early rapid tests for COVID have more false positives.

The Canucks, themselves, will either prove or disprove that they are starting to claw their way back from the bottom of the National Hockey League standings. It’s only a day and a half until they visit the San Jose Sharks for a Friday matinee, so the suspension won’t last long.

But there were several encouraging aspects to Wednesday’s wildly entertaining 5-4 win against the fast-and-trending Anaheim Ducks, who lead the Pacific Division and are nine points ahead of the reeling Canucks.

There were still defensive gaps the Canucks struggled to close, a flurry of Vancouver penalties and another near collapse when the Ducks scored twice in a little more than two minutes late in the second period to erase a 3-1 deficit.

Nevertheless, when the game was at stake, the dangerous Canucks produced their best period. Their last-minute penalty kill saved two thirds of the period when the score was 3-3.

Vancouver’s regrouped fourth line produced an early goal by Linus Carlson, and fourth-line center Max Sasson tipped Anaheim defenseman Drew Heilson for the go-ahead tally with 4:02 remaining.

And the Canucks’ struggling second line ended its drought with a beautiful goal by Connor Garland in the middle period — and would have scored three more if Brock Boozer’s finish had been sharper.

And third-string goalie Nikita Tulopello, who is actually the fourth netminder to start a game for the Canucks this season, made 37 saves in his second NHL win, including a shutout against Frank Vitrano.

“I think I can play better,” said Tolopello, starting with Thatcher Demko injured and Kevin Lankinen out, after his third NHL game. “But, yeah, the most important thing is that the team got a win. I wasn’t nervous. No, just … it’s a little different from the low speed in the AHL. So just to get used to it, it took time during the game. But I think, the third period was really good.”

Like we said, the Canucks will tell us whether Wednesday was the start of something or just a blip in their downward spiral on this four-game road trip.

But there was certainly much to feel positive about.

“We talked about it between the second and third (period), like, honestly, we still can’t afford to really go to OT,” Sasson said. “We needed to win in regulation, like a four-point game. So, you know, that was big. We knew we needed to win this game, and we did.”

“I don’t know if there’s any pressure,” said winger Keifer Sherwood, with trade reports swirling around him, trying to start a winning streak. “It’s more like we play it game by game and day by day. But, you know, we believe here. We believe in our team that we have. And when we do things the right way, we get good results. If you just follow the process and the details, things will work out.”

The Canucks, 10-12-2, haven’t won back-to-back games since Oct. 19.

They took the lead late on Wednesday when Quinn Hughes caught Filip Hronek across the ice, whose low shot bounced past Sasanian goalie Petr Mirzak’s pad and onto Helsen as Sherwood crashed into the net.

“I resented it,” Sherwood said. “I was like, whatever, I’m just excited it went in.”

Not as excited was Sasson, who was reunited on a line with Carlson and Arsdeep Baines — the trio that led the Abbotsford Canucks to the American Hockey League championship in June.

“Every chance you get in this league, whoever you’re playing with, it’s big. And especially the three of us, we talked about not scoring. I thought we played well in our shifts, and we got a big goal,” Sasson said. “Bains — obviously he’s been out of the lineup for five games or whatever — and he comes in and makes an unbelievable play that leads to the first goal (by Karlsson).”

Carlson opened the scoring at 9:49 of the first period on an inside-board rebound after Baynes curled a puck inside the Anaheim zone to knock down a point shot for Marcus Patterson.

With just his fourth goal of the season, Evander Kane made it 2-0 on the Canucks power play at 11:47 when his shot clipped the stick of Ducks defenseman Jackson LaCombe.

La Combe cut that lead in half when he fooled Tulupelo with a glove-side wrist shot for a power-play goal just nine seconds into the second period — and then three of four Canuck penalty killers were lured to one side of the ice before the puck went to the other.

But at 9:04, Garland scored the game-tying goal, beating both Hilson and Mirzak, after Boeser, who finished with an eight-shot effort, got caught on a partial layup and passed the cross-ice to his linemate.

Garland, Boozer and freshman center David Kampf combined for nine shots and one expected goal for 74 percent on five-for-five.

“We were all kind of, I felt, the last three games,” Garland said of his line. “And we didn’t really get the reward. But I felt that our line played really well, and sometimes it can take one like (to start scoring) I mean, Brock could have done two before … (but) it took us a few more shifts until we finally broke through. We can be a good line for us, play a lot defensively and defensively … “.

Leo Karlsson scored for Anaheim to make it 3-2 at 16:19 after Vancouver couldn’t defend a lost faceoff and Tulupelo couldn’t advance after Dak Troy Terry fell on him at the side of the net. And a series of mistakes, including defenseman Tyler Myers’ inability to play a two-on-one, led to Mason McTavish’s tying goal at 18:34.

But the Canucks couldn’t break through this time.