The Vancouver Canucks exploded for three unanswered goals in the second period, two of them off the rush, to beat the Anaheim Ducks 3-2 at Rogers Arena.
Head Coach Rick Tocchet liked that his team played north, moving the puck well, staying on the attack and opening up scoring opportunities.
“The speed through the neutral zone, getting the puck in the middle with some speed, getting some people to the net. Obviously, Jake's goal was big, that was a nice under the bar type of goal. When you're looking for it, he can supply that for us,” Tocchet said.
Tocchet said they are a team that needs to score by committee. He liked the depth scoring, mentioning the team must keep their work boots on for the remainder of the season.
“Obviously it’s a good win, but we’ve got to get back to work tomorrow. That's the way it is the next six weeks. We're in a race; we should be excited about this. We should embrace this and have some fun with it. But tomorrow we have to work, we’ve got some stuff we've got to iron out, that's just the way we’ve got to do it,” Tocchet said.
Vancouver finished with 36 shots on goal and won 70.7% of their faceoffs, while also putting their bodies on the line with 15 blocked shots.
Jake DeBrusk, who scored his 22nd goal of the season, said it was a great start to the homestand. With the Ducks playing their second of a back-to-back, DeBrusk spoke about the group just keeping their foot on the gas and continuing to limit Anaheim’s chances.
“I thought we started off the game well, they made their pushes, but we held serve and a couple guys made some great defensive efforts,” DeBrusk said.
Carson Soucy scored his third goal of the season, saying that depth scoring is important down the stretch as the team is trying to make a playoff push.
“Just as a group, we did a good job creating tonight. But it's always nice when you can help a team get a win with this late in the season,” Soucy said.
Kevin Lankinen turned aside 14 of the 16 shots he faced.
Goals
In the first period, Sam Colangelo gave the Ducks a 1-0 lead that carried them into the first intermission.
In the second period on the power play and off a pass from Brock Boeser, DeBrusk scored on a breakaway with the flick of his wrist to equalize.
“I mean, it's something that we look for honestly every time, because it's a pretty easy play. But, at the same point, the timing has got to be perfect, it depends on their sets, maybe it's a two-on-one, or things like that. So, it just worked out great,” DeBrusk said.
