VANCOUVER — The same old problems plagued the Vancouver Canucks once again on Sunday.
A slow start. An inability to finish in overtime. Another loss, this time dropping a 3-2 decision to the Vegas Golden Knights.
“It’s like a broken record," said forward J.T. Miller. "We weren’t ready to play and lost in overtime.
"Obviously we played our butts off for the second and third but it’s too late. It’s like I’ve said a million times — you can’t do that in the league, it’s too hard."
The loss does further damage to Vancouver's fragile playoff dreams. The Canucks now sit eight points below the Golden Knights in the Western Conference standings, with both teams battling the Winnipeg Jets, Dallas Stars and Nashville Predators for two wild card spots.
“Obviously it’s frustrating," said captain Bo Horvat. "We need every point we can get at this point of the season. Our start let us down again.”
Shea Theodore scored 2:05 into extra time to clinch the win for the Golden Knights
A battle along the boards in Vegas territory turned into a three-on-one rush the other way, with Jonathan Marchessault carrying the puck. He sent it across the slot to Theodore who swatted it in past Vancouver goalie Thatcher Demko for his 11th of the season.
“Confidence is huge in this league," Theodore said. "I feel like sometimes everything you put on the net is going in and then there's stretches where nothing is happening whatsoever, so it's good to be in this stretch and hopefully we’ll continue it.”
Marchessault notched an assist on the play and added a goal in regulation. Alex Pietrangelo also scored for Vegas (39-28-4), which stretched its win streak to five games.
The Canucks (32-28-10) went down 2-0 in the first period but rallied with goals from Miller and Horvat in the third.
Robin Lehner returned from a lower-body injury to put up a 26-save performance for Vegas. The Swedish netminder made his first start since March 8.
“He looked really sharp," said head coach Pete DeBoer. "We're using the depth of our organization at almost every position but particularly in net and Logan Thompson has come in and done a great job, but we needed Robin back.
"It's been a long time and it was nice to see him come with an effort like that.”
Demko stopped 27-of-30 shots as the Canucks lost their third in a row.
Vancouver potted the equalizer with an odd goal midway through the third after Brayden McNabb put the puck over the glass and was called for delay of game.
Horvat lost the faceoff to William Karlsson but the puck popped out, hitting the stick of Vegas defenceman Alec Martinez and squeaking past Lehner for the equalizer at the 9:42 mark.
"It’s probably one of the luckiest goals I’ve scored. Fortunate play at a fortunate time of the game," Horvat said. "It definitely helped us get a point but at the end of the day, we have to find a way to get that second one.”
Vancouver was 1 for 3 with the man advantage Sunday while Vegas went 0 for 3.
Down 2-0 coming into the third, the Canucks rallied early to cut their deficit in half.
Oliver Ekman-Larsson dished a short pass to Miller at the top of the slot and the feisty forward sent a rocket flying past Lehner to make it 2-1 at the 1:42 mark.
Vancouver appeared to lose an important piece late in the second period when right-winger Brock Boeser got caught up in teammate Elias Pettersson's hit on Ben Hutton near the penalty box.
Boeser writhed in pain on the ice for a moment before getting up and skating off holding his wrist. He went directly to the locker room, but returned to start the third.
The Canucks were already a man down after Tucker Poolman didn't join his teammates on the bench to start the second period.
Sunday marked the defenceman's return to the lineup after missing 26 games while dealing with migraines but Poolman played just four minutes, 25 seconds – all in the first period.
Head coach Bruce Boudreau said Poolman left the game due to a recurrence of the same issue and he'll be re-evaluated.
“I give the guys an awful lot of credit. The second and third period I thought we played really good," Boudreau said. "And with five defencemen, down in the third period, I thought we played a really almost perfect game defensively.
"We had chances to win it many times. We just didn’t do it.”
Marchessault cushioned the Vegas lead 12:31 into the opening frame, blasting a wrist shot past Demko from the top of the faceoff circle for his 28th goal of the season.
The tally extended his point streak to five games with three goals and seven assists across the stretch.
"(Marchessault) has been our offensive leader almost all season," DeBoer said. "He's showing up every night for us with obviously some critical offensive players sitting on the sidelines right now.”
Jack Eichel set up the opening strike, dishing the puck to Pietrangelo off a draw. The defenceman uncorked a short-side shot that found space between Demko's shoulder and the crossbar to give the visitors an early 1-0 lead.
Vegas was outshooting Vancouver 10-1 when Pietrangelo scored.
“I don’t know why we don’t start on time," Boudreau said. "I think teams know this and they come out flying and we should be able to know that, hey, we’ve got to hold off and play hard for the first period.”
The game marked the first half of a home-and-home series between the two sides, with the rematch set to go Wednesday in Vegas.
NOTES: Forward Jason Dickinson returned to the Canucks lineup after missing 16 games with a lower-body injury. … The Golden Knights improved to 10-0-2 in regular-season play against the Canucks. … Theodore has goals in three straight games.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published April 3, 2022.
Gemma Karstens-Smith, The Canadian Press
