Tuesday, December 19, 2023 08:00 PM (ET)

Quick-strike Canucks cruise past Predators

Field Level Media
Dec 19, 2023

Elias Pettersson and Pius Suter each had a goal and an assist, and twice the visiting Vancouver Canucks scored two goals in less than a minute during a 5-2 victory over the Nashville Predators on Tuesday.

Quinn Hughes and Ilya Mikheyev each recorded two assists while Nils Aman, Nils Hoglander and Teddy Blueger also scored for the Canucks, who are 6-0-1 in their past seven games.

Casey DeSmith made 26 saves as Vancouver swept the three-game season series from Nashville, which entered on a four-game winning streak with victories in 13 of its past 16 contests.

Jeremy Lauzon and Cody Glass scored for the Predators, who saw star netminder Juuse Saros pulled early in the third period after allowing his fifth goal on 24 shots. Saros entered 6-0-0 with a 1.48 goals-against average in December.

Kevin Lankinen took over and stopped all 11 shots he faced.

For the first 16 minutes, things were quiet. Then Vancouver scored twice in 31 seconds.

First, Pettersson streaked down the right wing, then unleashed a wrister past Saros with 3:22 remaining in the first for his 13th goal of the season. Moments later, Nashville gave up the puck in its own end, and it eventually went from the end boards to the front of the net for Aman to record his first marker of the season.

The Predators were the aggressor most of the second period, and they got rewarded with 5:37 remaining in the frame. On the rush, Luke Evangelista sent a pass to the pursuing Lauzon to drill past a seemingly confused DeSmith. It was Lauzon's third goal of the campaign.

However, the Canucks again struck for two goals in quick succession. Just 15 seconds after Nashville made it 2-1, Hoglander tipped in Hughes' point shot to again make it a two-goal game, his 10th marker of the season. It didn't stay that way for long, as Vancouver made good on Suter's wrister 46 seconds later for his fifth goal of the season.

The Canucks added more insurance just 1:16 into the third, with Hughes again on the service. This time Blueger flipped a shot past Saros, who was then chased for Lankinen.

Glass scored with 12 seconds to play.

Nashville's Michael McCarron received a game misconduct following an unsportsmanlike-conduct penalty late in the first period.

--Field Level Media

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