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Tag: Thatcher Demko

  • Hughes and Sharangovich help Devils beat Canucks 5-2

    Hughes and Sharangovich help Devils beat Canucks 5-2

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    VANCOUVER, British Columbia — Yegor Sharangovich and Jack Hughes each scored and had an assist to help the New Jersey Devils beat the Vancouver Canucks 5-2 on Tuesday night.

    Nico Hischier, Michael McLeod and Dawson Mercer also had goals for the Devils (7-3-0), who won their fourth game in a row for the first time since October 2018.

    Bo Horvat replied for the Canucks (2-6-2) with a pair of power-play goals. J.T. Miller assisted on both.

    New Jersey netminder Mackenzie Blackwood made 21 saves and improved his career record against Vancouver to 5-0-0.

    “I think we’ve been doing a good job of capitalizing on our chances as of late and really limiting stuff that the other team was getting in our end,” Blackwood said. “Tonight we did a good job of burying chances.”

    Jesper Bratt had an assist on Hischier’s fifth goal, extending his season-opening point streak to 10 games (four goals, 12 assists), which equaled a franchise record.

    “I think (Bratt’s) playing a team game and he’s getting rewarded,” Devils coach Lindy Ruff said.

    “He’s taking advantage of the opportunities and he’s finding a way every night to get on the board.”

    Thatcher Demko stopped 32 of 36 shots for Vancouver.

    The defeat snapped a two-game win streak for the Canucks, who lost seven in a row to start the season.

    “We need our veteran guys and our better players to be better players consistently, every day, not just one good game here and one good game there,” Vancouver coach Bruce Boudreau said. “And that goes not only for (defensemen) but it goes for the forwards as well and the goaltending as well.”

    Boudreau pulled his goalie with less than two minutes left and Hughes scored into the empty net.

    Vancouver made a late push, pulling Demko in favor of an extra attacker after New Jersey’s Ryan Graves was called for holding with 3:34 left on the clock.

    The move paid off when Horvat buried his second of the night with a one-timer from the high hash marks at the 17:12 mark, cutting the deficit to 4-2.

    “Obviously, the puck’s going in right now. But I’d rather be getting wins than scoring goals right now. I’d rather have none and be 9-0-0,” Horvat said. “But it’s not the way it’s going right now. And we’ve got to put this one in the past and keep plugging away here.”

    NEW FACES

    Canucks defenseman Ethan Bear and center Jack Studnicka made their debuts for Vancouver after being acquired in separate trades last week. Star blueliner Quinn Hughes returned to the lineup after missing four games with a lower-body injury.

    NEW THREADS

    The Canucks wore their new navy blue “Johnny Canuck” reverse retro jerseys. The sweaters pay homage to the team’s namesake, a lumberjack-looking character called Johnny Canuck, which served as the team’s logo when it entered the Western Hockey League in 1945.

    UP NEXT

    New Jersey: At the Edmonton Oilers on Thursday.

    Vancouver: Hosts the Anaheim Ducks on Thursday.

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    AP NHL: https://apnews.com/hub/nhl and https://twitter.com/AP—Sports

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  • Connor McDavid opens with hat trick, Oilers beat Canucks 5-3

    Connor McDavid opens with hat trick, Oilers beat Canucks 5-3

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    EDMONTON, Alberta — Connor McDavid had three goals and an assist and the Edmonton Oilers overcame an early 3-0 deficit to beat the Vancouver Canucks 5-3 on Wednesday night.

    Leon Draisaitl added a goal and two assists and Darnell Nurse also scored for the Oilers in the opener for both teams. Jack Campbell made 33 saves.

    “It wasn’t according to anyone’s script, for sure,” said Edmonton head coach Jay Woodcroft. “I don’t think we were sharp. I don’t think we were in sync early. We found a way to win the game, that’s a really good sign, but we can be better.”

    Elias Pettersson, J.T. Miller and Andrei Kuzmenko — in his NHL debut — scored for the Canucks. Thatcher Demko stopped 20 shots.

    Pettersson and Miller scored in an early 51-second span and Kuzmenko made it 3-0 39 seconds into the second on a power play. He’s the first player in Canucks history to score a power-play goal in his debut.

    “That was pretty disappointing, I thought we came out pretty good in the first and special teams kind of cost us the game,” said Canucks defenseman Oliver Ekman-Larsson. “The power play wasn’t good enough and we couldn’t keep the puck out of our net on the (penalty kill).”

    Edmonton got on the board 4:12 into the second when Draisaitl took a deflected pass at the side of the net and slammed it past Demko on a power play.

    The Oilers pulled within a goal with another power-play goal with 5:59 left in the second on a three-way passing play from Zach Hyman to Draisaitl and then to McDavid.

    “It was just not a good start for our group. It was the first game and maybe there was a little bit of jitters,” McDavid said. “It is not going to be perfect every night. You are not going to have the game you want every night and sometimes you get a win with your ‘B’ or ‘C’ game. It was certainly not our ‘A’ game to start, but we found a way to get our legs going and get ourselves back in it.”

    Edmonton pulled even with 41 seconds left in the period on a 2-on-1 short-handed break as Draisaitl fed it across to Nurse, who beat Demko with a one-timer.

    The Oilers took the lead with 4:59 left in the third period with McDavid orchestrating a give-and-go with Hyman before depositing his own rebound past Demko. It was McDavid’s 700th career point, making him the sixth-fastest player to hit the mark in 488 games.

    McDavid completed the hat trick with 25 seconds left when Evander Kane dropped it back to him for an empty-net power-play goal.

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    More AP NHL: https://apnews.com/hub/NHL and https://twitter.com/AP—Sports

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