The Vancouver Canucks scored six unanswered goals to top the Tampa Bay Lightning 6-2 at Benchmark International Arena.
Quinn Hughes was back in the lineup, and made an impact with four assists, topping the three assists he had in his most recent game against the Winnipeg Jets on November 11th. The captain said the team was too passive to start the game but found their rhythm in the middle frame.
“In the second, we were way better and took it to them, I thought, and then finishing strong in the third,” Hughes said.
Head Coach Adam Foote said the Lightning are a tough team to play against, and he was pleased they bounced back from a slow start in the first period.
“I liked the adjustment our players made – the leaders at our intermission – because we came out as a different team. We had a couple big kills there, Deano [Kevin Dean] has been working hard on the kill with some new guys; I thought [Brock] Boeser and [Jake] DeBrusk jumped in and did a good job, which they were big kills because they could have been up 3-0 and it would have been a tough on to come back from,” Foote said.
Mackenzie MacEachern scored his first goal as a Canuck and picked up the first two-point game of his career. Adam Foote said it was nice to see him have success, noting that MacEachern is disciplined in the system and structure and likes that he’s heavy on pucks.
MacEachern said the group didn’t like how they finished the game against Carolina, and Foote talked to the group and the veteran players led the way to help the team elevate their play.
“Ever since I've gotten here, it's kind of getting bodies to the net. We have great D that can get pucks through. I think you kind of saw in the second and third. We got bodies there and outnumbered them, and got a fortunate bounce here and there, so it was nice,” MacEachern said.
It was MacEachern’s fifth game with the Canucks, and he talked about Quinn Hughes’ ability to generate offence that helped lift the team over Tampa Bay.
“Quinn's a very, very special player. I mean, I've obviously played against him,see him a lot, but to be able to see him every day is pretty cool. It's good to have a guy like that in your lineup. He kind of changes the game, you can see that I think on the fifth goal, he carries it in, takes it around, kind of sets up that whole play. He drives our offence when he's going like that,” MacEachern said.
Kevin Lankinen stopped 28 of 30 shots he faced on the evening.
Goals
In the first period, Nikita Kucherov opened the scoring for the Lightning, Tampa Bay taking a 1-0 lead into the first intermission.
In the second, Jake Guentzel scored on a tip-in from Erik Cernak’s shot from the point.
On the power play, Jake DeBrusk snapped in a rebound net front off Elias Pettersson’s shot from the slot to put the Canucks on the board, Tampa Bay taking a 2-1 lead going into the final break.
