Vancouver helps heat things up in balmy Buffalo
BUFFALO, N.Y. The Canucks have played plenty of warm-weather hockey this week with bad results.
Turns out what they really needed was for the hockey to be played in the afternoon, and in Buffalo.
The temperature on the shores of Lake Erie hit 17 C on Saturday, not far off the fine weather the Canucks experienced in Florida.
The Canucks put together a much-improved performance against the Sabres, winning 6-3.
The Sabres scored at 8:44 of the first period, but the Canucks tied the NHL contest with 4½ minutes left in the period.
But unlike their previous two games — when they lost 9-2 to Tampa Bay (Tuesday) and 5-2 to Florida (Thursday) — they kept things rolling in the second and into the third, outscoring their hosts 4-2 in the process.
Captain Bo Horvat was delighted with his team’s performance.
“We wanted to come out hard and I thought we did that. I think we played a full 60 minutes. We haven’t done that in a little bit and we stepped it up even harder in the third,” Horvat said.
The Canucks got two goals from Brock Boeser, plus singles by J.T. Miller, Jake Virtanen and Horvat, plus an empty-netter from Loui Eriksson.
Here’s what else we learned in Buffalo on Saturday:
SLICK MITTS
Boeser has scored two goals in two straight games now off deft tips in front.
His first-period tally saw him deflect a Troy Stecher shot off the side boards essentially behind his back.
His second goal was a patented wrist shot, fired after an unconventional give-and-go with Chris Tanev.
He’s up to 16 goals this season and has recorded points in six consecutive road games. He has four goals and four assists in that span.
Tyler Motte also showed some crafty work with the puck when he set up Virtanen for the game’s fifth goal, a cross-crease backhanded pass right on the tape for Virtanen, who made no mistake.
CAPTAIN’S CALL
Horvat is playing some of the best hockey of the season. Since Christmas he has three goals and six assists.
The third goal Saturday early in the second period was the go-ahead marker as Horvat took a rebound off his initial pass attempt to Quinn Hughes off the wing and willed it home past Sabres’ goalie Carter Hutton.
“It’s nice to finally get the bounces coming our way,” Horvat said of the goal.
“I was talking before the game that it would be nice to shoot a puck in the net for once.
“And thankfully we got a couple here (Saturday).”
STOUT DEFENCE
After four straight games giving up more than 30 shots — and five out of six games since Christmas — the Canucks limited the Sabres to a tidy 28 shots against.