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Canucks win series in six games, bring on the Oilers

Trevor Beggs
Trevor Beggs
|
May 4 2024, 1:56 am
Canucks win series in six games, bring on the Oilers
Steve Roberts/USA TODAY Sports


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Pius Suter was having a frustrating night.

The Swiss forward had more than one glorious chance to score. He slammed his stick on the bench after a missed chance in the second period.

Then, with 99 seconds left in regulation, all his previous misses were forgotten.

Elias Pettersson replaced a gassed J.T. Miller on the ice for a late third period shift. He and Brock Boeser worked the boards and combined to feed Suter in front of the net.

This time, Suter made no mistake, burying the series-clinching goal and helping the Vancouver Canucks defeat the Nashville Predators 1-0.

“He just needed me to leave the ice,” Miller told Sportsnet’s Dan Murphy post-game. “I have one shift away from him and he scores the winning goal.”

“I love the fire. He knows he could have had 10 goals this series. He stuck with it which was awesome and it’s a huge goal for our team.”

The 27-year-old accomplished this despite eating out of a straw for the last couple of days, after taking a Carson Soucy shot to the face.

Remember, every hero has a story.

Speaking of heroes,Ā Arturs Silovs, the 23-year-old Latvian rookie, got his first career NHL playoff shutout in his third career playoff start.

After the game, fans were chanting his name outside Rogers Arena.

The Canucks defeat the Predators in six games and advance to Round 2 versus the Edmonton Oilers, a team they went 4-0 against in the regular season.

Silovs makes history for Canucks

NHL playoff hockey often breeds unlikely heroes.

Well, there might not be a more unlikely hero on the entire Canucks’ roster than Silovs.

When Thatcher Demko returned with two games in the regular season, Silovs was seemingly done playing NHL games for the rest of the 2023-24 season.

However, injuries to both Demko and Casey DeSmith unexpectedly thrust him into the spotlight.

Not only did Silovs prove he could handle the pressure, but he just outduelled one of the best goaltenders in the NHL.

Predators netminder Juuse Saros finished top-five in Vezina Trophy voting in the two seasons prior to this one. Despite looking like a former Vezina nominee in Game 6, Saros was instead bested by a goaltender with 12 combined regular season and NHL playoff starts to his name.

Silovs stopped all 28 Predators shots that came his way. He helped bewilder Nashville right until the final buzzer, even during a frantic example in front of the Canucks’ net.

With the victory, Silovs became the youngest goaltender in Canucks history to record a shutout in the playoffs. He’s actually just the second Canucks rookie to register a playoff shutout, with Demko being the only other netminder to do so.

He also became the the youngest goaltender in Canucks history to record a series clinching win.

“It’s a great opportunity for me,” Silovs told Sportsnet’s Dan Murphy. “They trust me more and I want to capitalize on these chances.”

The rookie also had the wherewithal to chirp Miller for wearing his shirt in practice yesterday.

“He’s gonna wear it every single day after this game.”

Head coach Rick Tocchet shared some comments about the legendary shirt as well.

“That shirt is so ugly, there’s only one in the world,” Tocchet said to the NHL on TNT Panel. “I love that shirt now, I’ll tell you that. He can wear that shirt anytime he wants.”

Pettersson and Canucks offence finds a way

With just one goal scored in this game, it wasn’t quite a breakout offensive performance for the Canucks.

However, they did take a step in the right direction over the final 40 minutes.

After failing to register more than 21 shots in a game all series, Vancouver tested Saros 24 times in the final 40 minutes of Game 6. A lot of those shots were dangerous chances.

Pettersson’s puzzling performance was a story all series long, but his work along the boards kickstarted the play that led to Suter’s winning goal.

Perhaps, the Canucks’ star centre is finally trending in the right direction.

“Maybe it will boost some confidence for him,” Tocchet said about Pettersson. “You know the way it works, after you get through this round, it doesn’t really matter. It reset the deck again.”

Tocchet knows that in the next round, he’ll likely need more offence from the likes of Pettersson, and the rest of the Canucks.

“We’ve got a hell of a team but now we’ve gotta play Edmonton. We’ve gotta turn around and be ready for them.”

The Canucks will reportedly begin their series against the Oilers on Tuesday night at Rogers Arena. It will be the first time the Canucks and the Oilers have faced off against each other in the playoffs since the Smythe Division Finals back in 1992.

Only three Canucks on this entire roster (Ian Cole, Tyler Myers and Casey DeSmith) were even born the last time these two teams met in the postseason.

 

Trevor BeggsTrevor Beggs
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