Coach’s faith in Miller pays off for Vancouver
VANCOUVER — The last time Ryan Miller faced the Toronto Maple Leafs his night ended with an ejection following a wild line brawl.
The veteran goalie for the Canucks wrapped Saturday’s much-anticipated rematch in a more familiar fashion, making 38 saves in regulation and overtime, plus two more in the shootout, as Vancouver downed Toronto 3-2.
Miller, 36, wasn’t even sure if he was going to start after allowing a weak goal in Thursday’s 3-1 loss to Anaheim — a flub that killed any chance of a comeback.
But head coach Willie Desjardins went back to Miller, and he repaid that faith with a stellar performance, especially late with the young Leafs pressing.
“Willie gave me a chance,” said Miller. “He said in front of all the guys I would be going. I needed to get my head on straight. I took the time to get refocused. I knew I had to be better.
“Willie believes in his guys. I made a pretty big mistake there. I wanted to show I could go out and compete and try and pull one off.”
Markus Granlund and Bo Horvat scored in the shootout for Vancouver (11-12-2), while Daniel Sedin and Sven Baertschi had the Canucks’ goals in regulation.
James van Riemsdyk and Auston Matthews replied for Toronto (10-9-5), which got 22 saves from Frederik Andersen.
Mitch Marner scored in the shootout for the Leafs, but Miller stoned Matthews on the Leafs’ first shot and then Tyler Bozak to clinch it after Brandon Sutter was stopped by Andersen on Vancouver’s third attempt.
“We played well. You’ve got to give Miller a lot of credit. I thought he did a nice job for them, kind of held the fort there,” said Toronto head coach Mike Babcock. “When you play good like this, you leave satisfied.”
Down 2-1 after 40 minutes, the Leafs came out flying in the third and tied the game on Matthews’ 11th of the season after the Canucks were punished for successive icings. Zach Hyman collected a deflected point shot and fed the No. 1 overall pick at the 2016 draft, who fired a quick wrist shot past Miller in front of the net at 1:56 for his fifth goal in the past five games.
Matthews looked set to give Toronto its first lead on a power play midway through the period, but the puck hopped over his stick on one chance before Miller made a nice pad save.
“He played a great game,” said Matthews. “At the same time, it’s our job to put our puck in the net, but he definitely stood on his head there for a while in the third period.” The Vancouver netminder snagged Bozak’s shot from in tight with 2:22 left in regulation, and Canucks defenceman Troy Stecher then cleared a loose puck out of the crease with just over a minute to go to force overtime after Miller got a piece of Connor Brown’s shot.
“I knew I got a lot of it,” said Miller. “I had a sinking feeling when I saw two people rushing behind me. You need everybody. I’m glad he was there.”
Nazem Kadri had two good chances in overtime for Toronto, while Andersen reached back to deny Stecher with the glove on Vancouver’s best opportunity.
“I thought we deserved a better fate,” van Riemsdyk said.
“That was a really fun game to play in.”
A lot of the talk ahead of the start had to do with what, if anything, the Canucks would do following that fight-filled 6-3 blowout loss to the Leafs at Air Canada Centre on Nov. 5.
Kadri, Morgan Rielly and Matt Martin were among the villains from a Vancouver perspective after that one — Kadri for the blindside hit to the shoulder/head area of Daniel Sedin, Rielly for an open-ice check on Jannik Hansen and Martin for pummelling Stecher in an exchange that led to a donnybrook where Miller and Andersen were among the players tossed.
Canucks defenceman Erik Gudbranson shouted “Matt Martin is dead” to media assembled outside the locker-rooms in the immediate aftermath, but said this week the comments were made in the heat of the moment.
But after Baertschi doubled Vancouver’s lead 2:37 into the second period on a botched deke for his fourth, Gudbranson and Martin dropped the gloves in a spirited fight that saw both players deliver a steady diet of right hands, much to the delight of the energetic crowd at Rogers Arena.