Markstrom doesn’t miss a beat in return as Canucks hold on to top Rangers - Sportsnet.ca

NEW YORK – Goalie Jacob Markstrom returned to the Vancouver Canucks’ lineup on Sunday, and it looked like he brought the power play with him.

The Canucks’ No. 1 goalie was outstanding in a 3-2 National Hockey League win against the New York Rangers, stopping 38 of 40 shots in his first game since taking a personal leave for family reasons one week ago as Vancouver hung on to split back-to-back weekend games.

After generating no run support for fill-in goalie Thatcher Demko in Saturday’s 1-0 loss to the New Jersey Devils, the Canucks gave Markstrom a comforting three-goal lead early on.

A reworked Canucks power play, which went 0-for-7 across the Hudson River, opened the scoring just 6:01 after the opening faceoff and looked dangerous all game. Bo Horvat collected Elias Pettersson’s short centring pass off his skate and slipped the puck under Rangers goalie Henrik Lundqvist to make it 1-0.

Power-play lynchpins Pettersson and Brock Boeser switched to their strong sides, which allowed them to play downhill toward the New York net with the puck on their forehands. That created more space and shooting responsibility at the point for rookie defenceman Quinn Hughes, who replaced Alex Edler on the top unit and was able to get one-timers on target.

Boeser made it 2-0 for the Canucks at 13:34, shooting from the slot off Lundqvist’s glove and in after Pettersson set him up in the slot following a turnover by the Rangers’ Brendan Smith.

When Vancouver fourth-liner Jay Beagle cut underneath Mika Zibanejad and scored short-handed to make it 3-0 at 16:53, it seemed possible that Lundqvist’s day would end early.

But the veteran goalie appeared for the second period and made big saves early on against J.T. Miller and Horvat on two-on-one rushes to keep the Rangers alive.

The Canucks’ failure to build on their lead became more ominous when Markstrom was finally beaten by Jesper Fast’s deflection at 14:50 of the middle period.

The Rangers and Canucks looked like entirely different teams in the third period, which was played largely in the Vancouver end.

Standing in the slot unchecked between Canucks Chris Tanev and Jake Virtanen, Rangers star Artemi Panarin made it 3-2 at 5:31 and Vancouver desperately clung to the lead the rest of the way. Markstrom made a pile of big saves as his teammates stopped skating and retreated. The Rangers outshot the Canucks 17-7 in the final 20 minutes.

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October 21, 2019 at 02:45AM