Jake Debrusk, Kiefer Sherwood, and Daniel Sprong wasted no time showing the Vancouver Canucks what they could bring to the table. And Quinn Hughes, well, he was extraordinary.
The Canucks topped the Calgary Flames 4-3 in overtime at the packed Abbotsford Centre last night. Sprong scored a beautiful end-to-end rush goal that looked eerily similar to a McDavid sprint, or better yet, for Canucks fans, a Pavel Bure sprint. Ok, that’s a bit too far, but you get the drift. And that all happened with just 14 seconds left to tie the game.
Jake DeBrusk had a solid game, he scored a pair including the overtime winner, and looked very good beside Elias Pettersson. Kiefer Sherwood looked good at both ends of the ice, including a glorious scoring chance on a wrister that he sent off the mask of Flames net minder Dustin Wolf.
And, of course, Quinn Hughes was in mid-season form and completely dazzled in the offensive zone with dekes, twists, and plays that left some Flames prospects watching in awe. Hughes tallied two assists, and is just an absolute pleasure to see in action, night in and night out.
Goaltender, Jiri Patera had a good game for the Canucks. He turned aside 16 of 19 shots, including a breakaway and several sprawling saves.
Head coach Rick Tocchet liked the overall effort from his team and told Canucks editorial writer Lindsey Horsting post-game, “It’s always nice to see the elements that we’ve been working on work in the game. Like I said, the two games were fine, I just think we have got to get a little bit faster, thinking faster.” He went on to add about Daniel Sprong’s goal, “That’s a hell of a goal.”
The Canucks are off to Seattle for their next preseason game, against the Kraken, at Climate Pledge Arena on Friday, September 27th at 7 pm Pacific.
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