Every game matters in a tight playoff race, but this was an especially important contest for the Vancouver Canucks to win.
The Canucks had a significant rest advantage over the Anaheim Ducks. Vancouver had three full days off ahead of Wednesday’s game, whereas Anaheim played the Edmonton Oilers the previous night and was on the second leg of a back-to-back. The Ducks have been on a roll lately, but they’re not a playoff-calibre opponent. The Calgary Flames also won Tuesday night, which put them 2 points ahead of the Canucks for the final wild-card spot before this game.
Vancouver couldn’t afford to fumble 2 points against Anaheim for the second time in a week. The club’s intensity and focus reflected those stakes as it convincingly controlled play and piled up nearly 40 shots to grind out a much-needed 3-2 victory. Here are three takeaways from the win.
Canucks’ dominant start foiled by bad luck
The Canucks came out of the gate flying, generating shots and sustaining offensive zone time at a prolific rate in the first period.
Conor Garland hit the crossbar on a dangerous look off the rush 11 seconds in. Less than a minute later, Brock Boeser was robbed on a glorious backdoor chance. John Gibson stretched across to catch a piece of Boeser’s shot with the top of his pad and then miraculously swung his glove behind his body to catch the puck out of midair and prevent it from going in.
John Gibson makes an unbelievable save to stop Brock Boeser. Wow
🎥: Sportsnet | NHL#Canucks #FlyTogether pic.twitter.com/qpqJcvLoJe
— CanucksArmy (@CanucksArmy) March 6, 2025
The Canucks were fast and ferocious on the forecheck, winning puck battles and committing to an assertive shot-first mentality. Vancouver had a 7-0 advantage in shots less than five minutes in and finished the period with a commanding 17-5 lead, which represented a season high for shots on goal in the first period. It was especially encouraging to see this play-controlling success without Quinn Hughes in the lineup.
You could argue there weren’t a ton of Grade-A chances out of those 17 shots and the Canucks didn’t create much on the power-play opportunities they got in the opening 20 minutes, but they dominated territorially and probably created enough to at least be up a goal.
Not only were the Canucks unable to score, but also they had to walk into the dressing room down a goal because of Sam Colangelo’s fluky tip goal. Cutter Gauthier floated a seemingly harmless point shot, and though Colangelo showed nice hand-eye coordination, that play doesn’t work nine times out of 10. It’s especially frustrating for a Canucks team that was ruthlessly punished by the Seattle Kraken with fortunate deflection goals. Sure, there’s an element of the Canucks perhaps needing to do a better job of boxing forwards out in front of the net and tying up attackers’ sticks, but it’s exceedingly rare and unlucky to surrender this many tip goals in such a short time frame.
Filip Hronek’s slick outlet passes lead Canucks comeback
It’s funny how hockey can work sometimes.
The Canucks were all over the Ducks in the first period but fell behind because they couldn’t catch a break. They had a much tougher time stacking heavy offensive zone shifts and sloppily turned the puck over several times in the second period, yet this was the stretch when they stormed back and took decisive control of the game.
Vancouver finally got some bounces, scoring three goals on its first six shots of the second period. The comeback started with Jake DeBrusk’s rush goal on the power play. Filip Hronek began the sequence by hitting Boeser with a gorgeous stretch pass to spring the Canucks behind Anaheim’s defenders. DeBrusk was streaking in on the weak side, received a pass from Boeser and patiently held on to the puck before flicking his wrist to elevate the puck over Gibson’s shoulder.
It was an authoritative, clinical finish from a Canucks team that hasn’t had much success converting on its chances lately.
🚨CANUCKS GOAL🚨
Jake DeBrusk scores on the power play! That’s his 22nd goal of the season!
🎥: Sportsnet | NHL#Canucks #FlyTogether pic.twitter.com/1Sad1YqN9p
— CanucksArmy (@CanucksArmy) March 6, 2025
Hronek picked up his second assist of the night by sending a sharp outlet pass to Teddy Blueger for a controlled zone entry. Blueger snapped a shot from the top of the faceoff circle, the puck took a fortunate knick off Jackson LaCombe’s skate and beat Gibson in that awkward area for goaltenders just above the pad but below the glove.
🚨CANUCKS GOAL🚨
Teddy Blueger scores his first goal in 28 games! It’s 2-1 Vancouver!
🎥: Sportsnet | NHL#Canucks #FlyTogether pic.twitter.com/HdevsYpcli
— CanucksArmy (@CanucksArmy) March 6, 2025
Hopefully for Blueger, this can be a confidence builder because he’s struggled mightily after a hot start to the season. This was Blueger’s first point in 26 games. He’s performed well on the penalty kill, and his two-way metrics have been decent on the fourth line, but the Canucks had been outscored 14-3 during his five-on-five shifts since Jan 1.
Continuing on that theme of scoring contributions from unlikely sources, Carson Soucy gave the Canucks a huge 3-1 insurance marker. Vancouver’s blown a lot of leads over the last few weeks, and though people will focus on the defensive side of the equation, a lot of it stems from being unable to extend leads.
Elias Pettersson showing signs of life
Elias Pettersson’s performance against the Ducks didn’t necessarily make you think “This guy is close to breaking out offensively,” but it at least slowed the negativity from his bizarrely disappointing play from snowballing even further out of control.
The heavily criticized 26-year-old had just 2 points and five shots in his last nine games heading into Wednesday’s game. The strangest part was that his two-way game — which has mostly been solid even through his offensive challenges this season — has been trending in the wrong direction. Pettersson’s been underwater at controlling five-on-five shot attempts in 11 of his last 13 games before the Ducks game.
Against Anaheim, Pettersson was more confident shooting the puck, firing five shot attempts and hitting the net on three of them. He was highly engaged and assertive physically, racking up five hits, and was stealing pucks on the forecheck. He was strong on the puck and dominated in the faceoff circle. He even made a couple of sweet dekes, showing flashes of ambition and confidence with the puck that we haven’t seen in a while. The Canucks outshot Anaheim 10-1 and controlled 92 percent of expected goals with Pettersson on the ice at five-on-five.
Let’s hope Pettersson can use an engaged, hardworking performance like this as a steppingstone to a higher level.
(Photo of Filip Hronek: Simon Fearn / Imagn Images)
