The Vancouver Canucks finished their preseason play with a 4-3 win over the Seattle Kraken at Rogers Arena on Saturday night.
Brock Boeser and Elias Pettersson finished with one goal and one assist apiece, and Jake DeBrusk recorded three points, one goal and two assists.
It was the second preseason game the Canucks played a more veteran lineup, and Head Coach Manny Malhotra said it was a process-driven game and saw more intensity and the team playing to their structure.
“It was the response that we were looking for sure,” Malhotra said. "Not losing focus of just playing the right way, we turned up the intensity in the second, got back to playing really direct, really quick, and it paid off for us. Then the response by our special teams, when they were given the opportunity, they made good on it for us.”
The group simplified their game in the second and third periods, which helped them get more offensive zone time, leading to more shot opportunities as 19 of their 22 shots on goal came in those two final two frames.
“We executed on the first play, didn't complicate things, gave ourselves an opportunity to forecheck, and play on the offence a little bit more in the second period, especially spent a lot less time in the d-zone. So, you put those two things together, we were able to maintain a lot more energy because we weren't chasing people in the d-zone, and then offensively we came to life game and more delivered a lot more pucks,” Malhotra said.
The win was an important step in their development as a team. Boeser said they’ve been focused on sharpening their execution and growing their chemistry on the ice.
“We’re going to take this time to really start to play together and play as a five-man unit out there being predictable, and it's going to take some time, and we’ve just got to keep building period by period,” Boeser said.
Boeser's goal was on the power play and the Canucks finished three-of-five on the man advantage. Boeser talked about the importance of special teams and finding their groove.
“We have the chemistry, and I think it took us a game there to find it, but we started the field in practice last practice, and we thought it translated well tonight, so we’ve just got to build off of that,” Boeser said.
Between the pipes, Kevin Lankinen stopped 25 of 28 shots he faced.
Goals
In the first period, Seattle’s Brandon Montour and Bobby McMann scored to give the Kraken an early lead.
On the power play, Brock Boeser tipped in Filip Hronek’s shot from the point, Seattle taking a 2-1 lead going into the first intermission.
