Following a brief slump, the Vancouver Canucks delivered a strong performance against their regional rivals, the Seattle Kraken.
Teddy Blueger netted his first goal of the season with a short-handed breakaway early in the first period. At the same time, Sam Lafferty and Nils Hollander added goals three minutes apart in the third, leading the Canucks to a 5-1 win over the Kraken on Friday night.
Dakota Joshua scored on a rebound in the second period, and Quinn Hughes tallied another assist, maintaining his status as the NHL’s leading point scorer. This win evened the season series between the Pacific Northwest rivals.
“I think everybody’s waiting for us to fall apart. These are nice wins,” said Vancouver coach Rick Tocchet.
Supported by a notable presence of Canucks fans, Vancouver secured just its second win in the last five games. The Canucks had been on a strong run, earning points in 11 out of 12 games, but recent losses to Calgary, Seattle, and Colorado had slowed their momentum. The Canucks also improved to 4-1-0 in Seattle since the Kraken entered the league.
“I wouldn’t have called it an ugly win. I thought it was a good win for us,” Hughes said. “Obviously, they had some good looks, but we had some looks too.”
Thatcher Demko made 23 saves, particularly excelling in the second period when Seattle dominated play but couldn’t find the back of the net.
Blueger gave Vancouver an early lead, capitalizing on a turnover by Seattle defenseman Justin Schultz and beating Kraken goalie Joey Daccord. Joshua doubled the lead at 12:07 of the second period, tapping in a rebound after Conor Garland’s shot was saved.
Lafferty extended the lead to 3-1 at 9:43 of the third period by redirecting Filip Hronek’s slap shot past Daccord. Hughes earned a secondary assist on the goal, extending his point streak to 10 games, the longest active streak in the league.
Hoglander scored at 12:38, and Ilya Mikheyev sealed the win at 17:30, shortly after a power play ended. Vancouver’s third and fourth forward lines combined for seven points.
“Those guys put a lot of effort in a lot of games. They’ve been getting the chances and just haven’t scored, so I’m happy for those guys,” Hughes said.
Seattle, aiming to climb above the .500 mark, stumbled after a sluggish start to the season. The Kraken had points in five consecutive games before this loss.
Tye Kartye scored Seattle’s lone goal at 17:29 of the second period, his first goal in 15 games. Daccord made 22 saves. The Kraken failed to score in the first period despite having eight minutes of power play time, including a disallowed goal by Matty Beniers due to an offside call.
“It’s not an effort issue, it’s a readiness issue,” Seattle coach Dave Hakstol said. “They were the more ready team at the drop of the puck, and you saw that in our execution in the first five minutes of the hockey game.”
Seattle also lost forward Brandon Tanev to an apparent left leg injury late in the first period. Tanev, who previously injured the same leg in the season opener against Vegas, returned to action on Nov. 13 after missing about a month.
Upcoming Games
Canucks: at San Jose on Saturday.
Kraken: at Chicago next Tuesday.
