Demko makes 23 saves, Canucks shut out Rangers

NEW YORK -- Thatcher Demko made 23 saves for his first shutout this season, and the Vancouver Canucks won their second straight game since trading Quinn Hughes, 3-0 against the New York Rangers at Madison Square Garden on Tuesday.

Vancouver sent Hughes, their former captain and the 2023-24 Norris Trophy winner as the League's top defenseman, to the Minnesota Wild on Friday for defenseman Zeev Buium, forwards Marco Rossi and Liam Ohgren, and a first-round pick in the 2026 NHL Draft.

Ohgren, Evander Kane and Conor Garland scored for the Canucks (13-17-3), who have won the first two games of a five-game road trip, including 2-1 at the New Jersey Devils on Sunday. It was Demko's 10th shutout, making him the sixth goalie in franchise history with at least that many.

"It's a bonus for sure if you can get off to a good start with the new guys and get them feeling good about themselves as well," Vancouver coach Adam Foote said. "You lose your captain, a guy that's been here a long time, it's hard on a lot of our guys. It's a big thing, but you have to move forward and play hockey. That's your job. It's good to get those two wins."

The Rangers (16-15-4) were shut out at home for the sixth time this season. It's the 10th time in 17 home games they've been held to one goal or less. They also lost 4-1 to the Anaheim Ducks at home on Monday.

Jonathan Quick made 14 saves for New York, which has lost five of six (1-3-2).

"I don't remember a time throughout that entire game that we weren't in their end; that's not good enough," Rangers center Vincent Trocheck said. "We need to score goals. We ended up with 23 (shots). It's not 40 shots, but I'd love to see the possession time in zone. I feel like it was the entire game. We have to score goals.

"The one (play) that puts the puck in the net, we haven't been doing it."

Kane gave the Canucks a 1-0 lead 1:46 into the first period.

He took the puck down the right side with Matthew Robertson attempting to defend him. Robertson collided with the linesman allowing Kane the space to take the puck through the bottom of the right face-off circle and across the slot before scoring from the left side.

"Their first goal was a little unfortunate; after that, you know, they had a few looks, but not a lot," New York coach Mike Sullivan said. "I thought we defended hard. I thought we controlled territory. We had a significant amount of O-zone time. The power play had a lot of good looks. We're trying to solve it for sure, but is it a little bit concerning at this point? Yeah."

The Rangers went 0-for-3 on the power play in the first period, and 0-for-4 in the game. They are 2-for-21 on the power play in eight games without defenseman Adam Fox, who has been out since Dec. 2 with an upper-body injury.

"Bear down," Rangers captain J.T. Miller said. "Like myself, I had chance after chance, I feel like. It's just not enough. It's not enough to my standard, it's not enough to the team's standard to just play well, outplay the other team and not bury your chances. We deserve better a lot of these nights, but that being said we're not bearing down and the other teams are. We're kind of stuck. Win three, lose a couple, win three, and we are where we are. It's very frustrating."

Ohgren scored his first of the season at 3:24 of the second period to give Vancouver a 2-0 lead. Linus Karlsson chipped the puck out of the defensive zone up to Ohgren, whose wrist shot from the right circle squeaked through Quick's pads before going in off the left post.

It was Ohgren's fourth goal in his 48th NHL game. He last scored March 19.

"In the NHL it was a long time ago, but I've been working hard for it," Ohgren said. "I've had chances but it hasn't gone my way. I'm happy it went in tonight."

Quick made back-to-back saves on Kiefer Sherwood at 9:13 and 9:14, stopping him on a breakaway and on the rebound. The Rangers had extended pressure in the Canucks zone for the next nine minutes but couldn't score.

"Just stuck to the gameplan," Demko said. "They're a good team. They're fighting their own fight over there and we knew they were going to push. The times we did get hemmed in we stuck together and kind of just got through it. It was a good job."

New York went on the power play at 15:12 of the third period and pulled Quick 45 seconds in to make it a 6-on-4, but Garland flipped it into the empty net from the defensive zone at 16:52 for a short-handed goal and the 3-0 final.

"I'm not concerned, I'm just (angry)," Miller said. "You feel like you work so hard and you make a lot of plays, and a lot of nights we feel like we're outplaying the other team and we end up in here (angry) because we didn't score enough goals."

NOTES: Demko tied Ryan Miller for the fifth-most shutouts in Canucks history. ... Mika Zibanejad returned to the Rangers lineup after being a healthy scratch against Anaheim on Monday because he broke a team rule by missing a morning meeting, Sullivan said. Zibanejad said he was stuck in traffic because of an accident on his way to the Rangers practice facility, but he knows the rules and he accepted the consequences.