Marcus Pettersson and Jake DeBrusk scored, and Lankinen made 30 saves for the Canucks (37-29-14), who had won two in a row. The combined 14 overtime and shootout losses are the most in a single season for Vancouver.
“It’s obviously a team fighting for their lives and they showed character, they showed heart, and they did what they had to do to get back in the game.” DeBrusk said. “We didn’t really generate much towards the second half. They locked it down pretty good and that’s kind of the story of our year. We get it to overtime and just don’t find that extra one.”
Pettersson scored at 3:11 of the first period to put the Canucks ahead 1-0. He took a cross-ice pass from Linus Karlsson, skated down inside the left face-off circle and sent a wrist shot over the blocker of Gustavsson.
It was Pettersson’s first goal in 29 games with the Canucks since being acquired from the Pittsburgh Penguins in a trade on Jan. 31, but he was more concerned about being outshot 13-4 in the third period.
“We were defending a lot in that game,” said Pettersson, who turned the puck over on the second Wild goal. “There were some more plays to be made and we kind of gave it away to them too much and let them come out of this. … They’re a desperate team. They need this point, so I think we kind of handed it to them by giving them the puck too much.”
DeBrusk pushed the lead to 2-0 on a power play at 13:08 of the second period by deflecting a Nils Hoglander shot under Gustavsson’s blocker from the edge of the crease.
It was DeBrusk’s 27th goal this season, tying his NHL career high from 2018-19 and 2022-23 with the Boston Bruins.
Faber scored 22 seconds into the third period to make it 2-1, collecting a loose puck in the slot and sending it past a screened Lankinen.
“We came in here and it was quiet. It was positive, but everyone was laser focused on just trying to break down that wall,” Foligno said of the Wild room. “Give credit to Lankinen too, he played great and we got one past him early and I think that changed a little. If that’s maybe later, it’s still a little bit tougher of a hill.”
This post was originally published on this site be sure to check out more of their content.
