Kiefer Sherwood is continuing his exceptional play and showed his scoring touch with a hat trick to lead the Vancouver Canucks to a 4-3 shootout win over the St. Louis Blues.
With injuries mounting, the Canucks leaned on their “next man up” mentality and Canucks’ Head Coach Adam Foote was pleased with the contributions and team-first approach.
“It's pretty incredible for me as a coach, I’ve been here two and a half years, maybe almost three years, and that's the best team win I've seen since I've been here, as far as being resilient,” Foote said. “What our leadership group has done to allow the young guys to come in and feel comfortable, play with confidence, and not get upset at them when they make those young mistakes is impressive.”
Sherwood’s hat trick was the second of his career. With the three goals against St. Louis, he now has nine on the season, tying him for the league lead.
“Scott Young's a shooter, always has been, and the first thing he says [about Sherwood] is, ‘I can't believe that one shot how fast it got in the top shelf,’” Foote said. “He's just playing with a lot of zip right now, a lot of confidence, and when you're at that level things happen that way.”
Brock Boeser took a puck to the groin in the first minute of the game, and with the Canucks rolling 11 forwards, Sherwood stepped up in a big way. He said the team focused on one shift at a time to grind out the win, and they’re going to keep plugging along.
“Next man up just makes us more dangerous. We're more hungry, right, [it’s] a good opportunity for some guys to step in, and we just stick together and play more united and as a team and try to hold the fort down until some of those guys can get back, because obviously you can't really replace them, but we just continue to grind along as a team,” Sherwood said.
Kevin Lankinen stopped 36 of 39 shots he faced and is a perfect seven-for-seven in shootout attempts this season.
“He studies the game. Lanks is a true pro, and so is Demmer, and they study the shooters, they study the game, and it's no fluke that he did what he did tonight,” Foote said.
Goals
In the first period, Blues’ Dylan Holloway opened the scoring, and Kiefer Sherwood answered on the power play, jumping on a loose puck in front of the net and wiring a wrist shot past Jordan Binnington to even the score 1-1 heading into the first intermission.
