After playing two pond hockey games versus the Edmonton Oilers to start the season — the clubs combined for 27 goals in six-plus periods of hockey — the Vancouver Canucks settled in and earned a 4-1 win over Alberta’s other team on Saturday night.
The Calgary Flames led the Canucks 1-0 entering the final frame, but Vancouver scored fewer than 90 seconds into the third and rode the wave to a big home-ice win at Rogers Arena.
Entering the season, many people had Vancouver and Calgary tabbed as the worst teams in the league. If this was, indeed, an early-season battle of eventual basement dwellers, the Canucks showed their Pacific Division rivals they won’t be pushed around.
Here are a few takeaways from Vancouver’s second victory of the campaign.
Oh yeah!
Liam Ohgren — one of the players Vancouver acquired from the Minnesota Wild 10 months ago in the Quinn Hughes trade — scored his first of the year when a video review determined his shot did, in fact, cross the goal line before Flames goalie Devin Cooley covered it up. It may have been Ohgren’s first strike of the season, but the 22-year-old entered the game with a couple assists and added another when he set up the game-winner by defenceman Elias Pettersson roughly eight minutes after his own goal.
Ohgren’s two-point night was a clear bright spot for the Canucks against Calgary.
Third-period party
After scoring seven — seven! — third-period goals through their first two outings, the Canucks again closed strong with four final-frame markers versus the Flames. The one difference this time out was Vancouver netting an empty-netter, as Aatu Raty sealed the victory with 2:44 to go.
The Canucks may be embarking on a ground-up rebuild, but it surely says something positive about coach Manny Malhotra’s charges that they refuse to go quietly into the night.
Pettersson playing with jam
Of all the unfortunate subplots playing out in B.C. the past couple years, the struggles of centre Elias Pettersson may be the most befuddling. Pettersson has seemed disengaged at times, as the offence Canucks fans came to expect from him in the early stages of his career completely dried up.
However, Pettersson has been playing with more purpose early on this season, entering Saturday’s tilt with Calgary with two goals and four points through a pair of contests. After recording eight hits in Thursday’s game against Edmonton, Pettersson was credited with eight more versus Calgary. Most notably, “EP40" smoked Calgary defenceman Zayne Parekh in the neutral zone late in the contest, creating a turnover that led to Drew O’Connor’s insurance marker.
That prompted the Vancouver crowd to start a “Let’s go, Petey!” chant in the aftermath of O’Connor’s goal.
“That hit got us all going,” Ohgren told Sportsnet’s Dan Murphy after the game.
If the 27-year-old centre continues to play with this much energy, it could change the perception around him and create some league-wide interest in the guy who was well over a point-per-game player in the early part of this decade.
Don’t forget about the other Pettersson
The winning goal for Vancouver came from the Elias Pettersson who plays defence, as the Swede made a nifty forehand-backhand move to beat Cooley just before the halfway point of the contest. Pettersson jumped up from the blueline as the Canucks were cycling around the Calgary zone, taking a pass from Ohgren at the right face-off dot before drawing it to his backhand and flicking it into the net. It was an impressive display of offence from a D-man who scored just four goals through the first 100 games of his NHL career entering Saturday’s contest.
Cotter continues to shine
Paul Cotter, who entered the contest with three goals through his first two games, picked up another point when he assisted on Ohgren’s goal 1:28 into the third. Cotter, a six-foot-two, 26-year-old Michigan native, was brought in on a one-year contract this summer to provide some physicality and make the Canucks a more imposing team to face. His offence, though, has been an early-season delight, as he’s tied with Pettersson (the forward) for the team lead in scoring with five points. Cotter, who did score 16 goals for the New Jersey Devils two years ago, has been a major bright spot for the Canucks through three games.
One start, one win
With Thatcher Demko still on the shelf, the Canucks opted to claim Leevi Merilainen from the Ottawa Senators before the season. In his first start with the club — Merilainen came in halfway through Thursday’s loss to the Oilers — the 24-year-old Finn stopped 23 shots to earn his first ‘W’ as a member of Vancouver.
After the club surrendered 14 goals in its first two games of the season, it certainly reflects well on Merilainen to see the team give up just one goal in his first start of the year.
Merilainen is unlikely to get the call Sunday night as the Canucks play back-to-back contests, but he made a positive impression in his first 60-minute showing with Vancouver.
