VANCOUVER — Bruce Boudreau said his team had one Mulligan left to play. The Vancouver Canucks just didn’t expect to have to use it on the shortest par-three they had left.
The Ottawa Senators, 23 points behind the Canucks and out of the National Hockey League playoff race for months, rallied from a two-goal deficit to beat Vancouver 4-3 in a shootout Tuesday at Rogers Arena.
Winners of six straight, the Canucks badly needed to extend their streak to seven but squandered a 2-0 lead, one point and an opportunity. They weren’t going to win their final 12 games of the regular season, but using their Mulligan against the Senators means the Canucks may need to sweep a daunting road trip to Minnesota and Calgary that starts Thursday against the Wild.
With five games remaining, the Canucks are four points out of a wildcard spot in the Western Conference and five points behind the third-place Los Angeles Kings in the Pacific Division.
“We still have to win,” Boudreau said. “I mean, nothing’s really changed. We were going to be allowed one Mulligan somewhere along the road. We were thinking that it might be on the road trip. But so now we just have to go back and, you know what, we’ve responded really well in the past.
“We would have liked to have two points, no doubt. It makes things a little bit more difficult. But, I mean, we’ve just got to move on here. Put that one behind you and give Ottawa credit. They played really hard, played really well.”
Yes, the Senators did, and especially their goalie Filip Gustavsson, who made 34 saves before stopping four of five Canucks in the shootout.
But Vancouver still led 2-0 after the first period and, when Alex Formenton scored for Ottawa to halve the deficit at 4:04 of the second frame, the Canucks had at least a half-dozen Grade-A scoring chances over the final 15 minutes of the middle period to extend their lead and possibly bury the Senators.
It was in goal where the Senators won it, which is ironic because the Canucks brought star starter Thatcher Demko in from the bullpen at the beginning of the second period when backup Jaroslav Halak was unable to continue after appearing to get slashed on his blocker hand during a first-period scramble.
Demko, who has 33 wins this season and is the Canucks MVP, blew the save in the relief of Halak and then blew a chance to win in the shootout when Drake Batherson tied the skills contest in the third round, two rounds before ex-Canuck Adam Gaudette, who did not play a shift in the third period or overtime, scored in Round 5 to end it.
After Miller, who had opened the scoring on the power play with his 30th of the season just 1:55 into the game, beat Gustavsson again in the second round of the shootout, the Canucks’ Elias Pettersson had a chance to win it in Round 3 but was stopped.
“It was pretty unrealistic to think you’re going to win 13 games in a row to get in the playoffs,” Miller said. “We got a point, from behind there. We had a lot of chances there at the end that easily could have went (in). A lot of chances in the second where we could have kind of broke the game open. Their goalie played really well tonight, but nothing really changes for us. We’ve got to run the table.”
After Parker Kelly barely got the puck under Demko and over the goal-line following a perfect bounce off the end boards to tie it 2-2 at 2:17 of the third period, Formenton gave the Senators their only lead 92 seconds later when he scored beautifully on a breakaway after getting a step on defenceman Luke Schenn.
But Travis Dermott tied it for the Canucks at 6:47, converting a pass out from behind the net by Brock Boeser, who also scored in the first period.
Boeser had a chance to win it in regulation but was stopped by Gustavsson on a rebound, shortly before Canucks defenceman Tyler Myers hit the cross bar.
Starting Halak over Demko for the second half of back-to-back games was clearly the right choice for Boudreau, as Vancouver’s backup stopped all 14 shots he faced in his lone period. But goaltending was still a hot topic after the game.
The Canucks recalled minor-league goalie Spencer Martin earlier Tuesday – a non-COVID illness going through the team kept Alex Chiasson out a second straight game – but Boudreau bristled at questions about Demko’s health.
“I don’t know what we’re all… looking at,” Boudreau said, dropping an F-bomb for which he quickly apologized. “Demko could have played. He was happy to have played, but we were planning on going with Halak the whole time.”
The coach, however, said that Halak’s undisclosed injury will likely keep him from travelling to Minnesota and Calgary.
The Canucks then return home for games next week against Seattle and Los Angeles before ending their regular season next Friday in Edmonton. Like Miller said, they may need to run the table.
“It’s all mental,” he said. “We’ve talked about it before. Everybody’s played a lot of hockey this year in the league. There is no excuse for travel or playing 75 or 80 games; it’s part of what we get paid to do. It’s all mental. If you can mentally wake up and get ready to play this time of year, you’re going to be a step ahead.”
“This is a group that has fought for four-and-a-half months, almost five months now,” Boudreau said. “And they’re not going to quit now.”
