The Vancouver Canucks had enough stretches in this one to stay around, but the costly mistakes came at exactly the wrong moments and Winnipeg made them pay in a 6-2 loss.
Vancouver’s lineup featured DeBrusk, EP40 and Boeser up front, with Öhgren, Rossi and Lekkerimäki on the second line. O’Connor, Quillan and Karlsson formed the third unit, while Cotter, Sasson and Gallagher rounded out the forwards.
On defense, EP25 and Hronek were paired together, with Buium and Brisebois, plus Oleksiak and Mancini. Meriläinen got the start in goal.
Tom Willander was out again, day-to-day with the injury that kept him sidelined on Tuesday night.
The Jets opened the scoring on a power play after Drew O’Connor was called for hooking early in the first. Leevi Meriläinen made his first big stop of the night, but Winnipeg kept the pressure on and Alex Iafallo redirected a Haydn Fleury point shot past him. As John Shorthouse noted on the broadcast, the Canucks have now allowed a power play goal in 14 of their 18 games this season.
Just 14 seconds later, Winnipeg struck again. Cole Koepke sent a wrist shot toward Meriläinen that looked harmless enough, but it slipped under the goalie’s pad and made it 2-0.
Vancouver didn’t get its first shot on goal until nearly seven minutes had gone by, but when it finally arrived, it was a beauty. Liam Öhgren drove toward the middle, sold pass with his head, then snapped a shot across the ice and beat Stuart Skinner cleanly to cut the deficit in half.
The Jets answered again before the period ended. Dawson Mercer, acquired in the Connor Hellebuyck trade, scored his first of the season to make it 3-1.
Then Zeev Buium, after a rough first period, accidentally batted the puck over the glass from his own end to give Winnipeg a late power play. Vancouver’s penalty kill held through the rest of the period and kept the score from getting worse.
Elias Pettersson, the forward, stood out early with strong work in the faceoff circle and a confident puck game. He won 10 of 12 draws at one point and helped the Canucks kill off the rest of Buium’s penalty.
He also sparked a chance and drew a roughing penalty on Kyle Connor to earn Vancouver its first power play of the night. Even without a point, Pettersson kept making things happen.
But the second period belonged to Winnipeg. Neal Pionk finished off a sequence after Meriläinen made a strong stop on Gabe Vilardi, with Kyle Connor driving through a sloppy Vancouver defensive setup before the puck found Pionk. Later, Mark Scheifele poked in another one after Jake DeBrusk turned the puck over in his own end, and suddenly it was 5-1.
The third period didn’t bring much relief. The broadcast pointed out that the numbers were relatively close in offensive-zone time, shots and other categories, but Vancouver’s puck management kept sabotaging any chance to build momentum. Manny Malhotra shuffled the lines to start the final frame, though the Canucks still spent a long stretch defending.
Winnipeg made it 6-1 when Scheifele danced through the zone and set up Mario Ferraro for a blast past Meriläinen. Vancouver did get one back when Jacob Quillan won a board battle and sent a backhand pass to Brock Boeser, who roofed his backhand for the Canucks’ second goal.
That was as close as it got. Marco Rossi took a tripping penalty with three minutes left, and the game closed out with Winnipeg well in control.
A few final notes from the night: Brock Boeser now has 11 points in his last 11 games, Jacob Quillan picked up his first point as a Canuck, and Vancouver simply needed to handle the puck better than it did. The scoreline was lopsided, but the game itself was closer than it looked.
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