Tocchet wins debut as Canucks coach against Blackhawks

VANCOUVER -- Rick Tocchet won his debut as Vancouver Canucks coach, 5-2 against the Chicago Blackhawks at Rogers Arena on Tuesday.

Dakota Joshua and Sheldon Dries scored 34 seconds apart in the third period to help Tocchet win his first game since replacing Bruce Boudreau on Sunday. Vancouver had lost three in a row and seven of eight.
"The players kind of bought in," Tocchet said. "There's been some tough circumstances the last few days. There was a lot of emotions and heads spinning. I threw some stuff at them today; we had longer meetings than I like to. For them to take it in and play good, I commend the players.''
Andrei Kuzmenko scored twice, and Elias Pettersson and Luke Schenn each had two assists for the Canucks (19-25-3), who won for just the third time in 13 games. Collin Delia made 12 saves.
"We wanted to get that one off the hop for [Tocchet]," Schenn said. "There's a lot going on here the last couple days, so I think we did a good job of preparing. They prepared us well too and we were able to relax and settle in a little bit."

Petr Mrazek made 43 saves for the Blackhawks (14-28-4) in the opener of a three-game road trip. They have lost two in a row after winning six of seven.
"We knew they were going to come out really hard, new coach and everything, so I thought we weathered it for a bit and had some pushback, just not quite enough in the third," Chicago forward Sam Lafferty said. "There's a lot of excitement and everyone wants to prove themselves, so they obviously dictated the play for most of it. We had a chance, so credit to Mrazek for keeping us in."
The Canucks outshot the Blackhawks 21-6 in their first period under Tocchet but couldn't beat Mrazek, who stopped Curtis Lazar, Bo Horvat and Schenn in alone.
"Just started slow and didn't seem to have our legs tonight and a little sloppy all over the ice," Chicago defenseman Seth Jones said. "If it wasn't for Mrazek, it could have really got out of hand."
Patrick Kane gave the Blackhawks a 1-0 lead at 17:49 of the first with a screened wrist shot from just inside the blue line.
Kuzmenko tied it 1-1 at 7:02 of the second period, lifting a rebound over Mrazek from the side of the net after he stopped Ilya Mikheyev from point-blank range. It was Kuzmenko's 20th goal of the season.

Lafferty put Chicago back ahead 2-1 off the rush at 12:06, cutting to the middle between the top of the face-off circles for a wrist shot.
Kuzmenko tied it again at 15:47 after Pettersson eluded a check before passing cross-ice to Kuzmenko for a tap-in at the edge of the crease to make it 2-2.
"Have a good line with [Mikheyev] and [Pettersson]," Kuzmenko said. "They are great players. The two goals was good team work."
Kuzmenko has seven points (four goals, three assists) during a five-game point streak, and 43 points (21 goals, 22 assists) in 46 games in his first NHL season after playing the previous eight in the Kontinental Hockey League.
"He's a horse; he's a really good hockey player," Tocchet said. "There's work to be done. He can even be a better player. He's buying in, he's trying to play better defensively. He hangs around that net. He's good at holding pucks."
Joshua gave Vancouver a 3-2 lead at 11:34 of the third period. After Andreas Athanasiou whiffed on a 2-on-1 pass at the other end, Joshua chipped a loose puck past a prone Mrazek after Brock Boeser tried to bank it in from below the goal line.
"The first part of the period we weren't bad and right up [until] the 2-on-1 [Max] Domi and Athanasiou had," Blackhawks coach Luke Richardson said. "We missed and it went right down the other way against us. We were chasing it after that."

Dries made it 4-2 at 12:08, putting in a rebound with a shot between his legs from just outside the crease.
Horvat scored his 31st goal, matching his NHL career high, short-handed into an empty net with 1:26 left for the 5-2 final.
The Canucks play again Wednesday at the Seattle Kraken (10 p.m. ET; ROOT-NW, SNP, ESPN+, SN NOW).
"You like the result, but to me the hard part is to do it again," Tocchet said.
NOTES:Pettersson has four points (one goal, two assists) during a three-game point streak, and 28 points (six goals, 22 assists) in his past 16 games. … Chicago forward Luke Philp had one hit in 8:45 in his NHL debut after being called up from Rockford of the American Hockey League on Monday.