Canucks halt skid with shutout win over Blackhawks

[April 07, 2023]  Andrei Kuzmenko scored his team-leading 38th goal and Thatcher Demko earned his first shutout of the season as the Vancouver Canucks snapped a four-game skid with a 3-0 victory over the visiting Chicago Blackhawks on Thursday.  

Apr 6, 2023; Vancouver, British Columbia, CAN; Chicago Blackhawks goalie Alex Stalock (32) dives for the loose puck against the Vancouver Canucks in the first period at Rogers Arena. Mandatory Credit: Bob Frid-USA TODAY Sports

The Canucks swept the season series by winning all three games to continue their recent domination over the Blackhawks. Vancouver is 13-2-1 in its past 16 games against Chicago.

Vitali Kravtsov and J.T. Miller also scored and defenseman Akito Hirose dished out a pair of assists for the Canucks. Demko was superb in net, turning aside 33 shots for his 12th win of the season.

Alex Stalock stopped 26 shots for Chicago. This was the second game of the Blackhawks' final road trip of the season and their ninth loss in the last 10 games.

One of Demko's best saves of the game came halfway through the first period when he stuck out his left leg pad and robbed Boris Katchouk from in close on a Blackhawks' power play. He also stopped speedy forward Lukas Reichel on a breakaway in the second.

Kuzmenko opened the scoring at 16:16 of the first period. Elias Pettersson passed it back to the point and then Kuzmenko threaded a wrist shot through a maze of players. The 27-year-old Russian is leading all first-year players in scoring by a wide margin, but is seven months too old to be eligible for the rookie of the year award.

Stalock made a spectacular save on forward Anthony Beauvillier 3:23 into the second while on his back to keep the Hawks within a goal.

But the Blackhawks scored an own goal just 30 seconds later as defenseman Seth Jones defected the puck into his net with the blade of his stick to make it 2-0 for the Canucks. The goal was credited to Kravtsov, who was the last Canucks player to touch the puck.

Miller rounded out the scoring with a bank shot off the side boards into the empty net at 19:35 of the third.

--Field Level Media

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